Contribution to Biosfera, an environmental show on national TV (RTP2). This episode in particular focused on the factors threatening amphibian populations: diseases, climate change, habitat loss and invasive alien species. In my participation, I talked briefly about the impacts of the invasive red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii, Girard 1852) on the community of macrophytes from Mediterranean temporary ponds.
"Recently, Bruno Carreira found that the impact of crayfish is worse than previously thought, because they also feed on aquatic vegetation and reduce it drastically."
The work conducted during my M.Sc. thesis showed that besides damaging macrophytes through direct consumption, crayfish also cause important non-consumptive damages on macrophytes, cutting their stems. In turn, the reduction of macrophyte cover by crayfish may have consequences for other organisms.
"Aquatic plants are important for amphibians to lay eggs, but also because amphibian larvae feed on algae attached to the aquatic vegetation and, in its absence, their feeding resources greatly decrease."
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