A regional fish inventory of inland waters in Northern Italy reveals the presence of fully exotic fish communities

Figures & data

Figure 1. Study area (data source: http://gadm.org), hydrographic network of main rivers and streams (data source: http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/european-river-catchments-1) and location of sampling sites.

Table I. Observed fish species in the freshwater systems of the Emilia Romagna region. The reported status of each species refers to the Emilia Romagna region (within the Padanian hydrographical district).

Family	Species	Common name	S†	N‡
					Anguillidae	Anguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758)	European eel	Ns	17
Clupeidae	Alosa fallax (Lacépède, 1803)	Twaite shad	Ns	8
Cyprinidae	Sarmarutilus rubilio (Bonaparte, 1837)	South European roach	Ns	23
	Leucos aula (Bonaparte, 1841)	Italian red-eye roach	Ns	6
	Squalius squalus (Bonaparte, 1837)	Cavedano chub	Ns	85
	Squalius lucumonis (Bianco, 1982)	Toscana stream chub	Es	2
	Telestes muticellus (Bonaparte, 1837)	Italian riffle dace	Ns	55
	Phoxinus phoxinus (Linnaeus, 1758)	Eurasian minnow	Ns	4
	Tinca tinca (Linnaeus, 1758)	Tench	Ns	1
	Scardinius hesperidicus Bonaparte, 1845	Italian rudd	Ns	30
	Alburnus arborella (Bonaparte, 1841)	Italian bleak	Ns	81
	Chondrostoma soetta Bonaparte, 1840	Italian nase	Ns	2
	Protochondrostoma genei (Bonaparte, 1839)	South European nase	Ns	47
	Gobio benacensis (Pollini, 1816) ?	Italian gudgeon	Ns	20
	Barbus plebejus Bonaparte, 1839	Italian barbel	Ns	76
	Barbus tyberinus Bonaparte, 1839	Tiber barbel	Es	9
	Barbus barbus Linnaeus, 1758	European barbel	Es	3
	Carassius spp.	Crucian carp	Es	71
	Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758	Common carp	Es	82
	Abramis brama (Linnaeus, 1758)	Common bream	Es	31
	Blicca bjoerkna (Linnaeus, 1758)	White bream	Es	5
	Rutilus rutilus Linnaeus, 1758	Roach	Es	1
	Rhodeus sericeus (Pallas, 1776)	Bitterling	Es	27
	Pseudorasbora parva (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846)	Stone moroko	Es	74
	Ctenopharyngodon idella (Valenciennes, 1844)	Grass carp	Es	3
	Leusciscus aspius (Linnaeus, 1758)	Asp	Es	6
Cobitidae	Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (Cantor, 1842)	Pond loach	Es	1
	Cobitis bilineata Canestrini, 1865	Italian spined loach	Ns	27
Siluridae	Silurus glanis Linnaeus, 1758	Wels catfish	Es	48
Ictaluridae	Ameiurus melas (Rafinesque, 1820)	Black bullhead	Es	20
	Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque, 1820)	Channel catfish	Es	4
Esocidae	Esox cisalpinus Bianco & Delmastro, 2011	Southern pike	Ns	1
Salmonidae	Salmo trutta complex	Brown trout	Ns/Es	70
	Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum, 1792)	Rainbow trout	Es	3
Poeciliidae	Gambusia holbrooki Girard, 1859	Eastern mosquitofish	Es	6
Cottidae	Cottus gobio Linnaeus, 1758	Bullhead	Ns	1
Centrarchidae	Micropterus salmoides (Lacépède, 1803)	Largemouth black bass	Es	9
	Lepomis gibbosus (Linnaeus, 1758)	Pumpkinseed	Es	26
Percidae	Perca fluviatilis Linnaeus, 1758	European perch	Es	3
	Gymnocephalus cernua (Linnaeus,1758)	Ruffe	Es	10
	Sander lucioperca (Linnaeus, 1758)	Zander or pike-perch	Es	29
Mugilidae	Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758	Flathead grey mullet	Ns	1
	Liza ramada (Risso, 1827)	Thinlip grey mullet	Ns	3
Gobiidae	Padogobius bonelli (Bonaparte, 1846)	Padanian goby	Ns	43
Pleuronectidae	Platichthys flesus (Linnaeus, 1758)	European flounder	Ns	1

†S: status; Ns is for native and Es is for exotic species.

‡N: number of sampling sites where the species is present.

Table II. Exotic species present in the nine positions belonging to the xenodiversity hotspots where native species were absent (Figure 2).

	Lowland region							Upland region
Site	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total
Crucian carp	x		x	x		x				4
Common carp	x	x	x	x		x	x			6
White bream					x					1
Common bream	x									1
Bitterling	x									1
Stone moroko	x	x	x			x				4
Grass carp					x					1
Wels catfish	x	x		x	x		x			5
Black bullhead	x			x						2
Eastern mosquitofish		x								1
Pumpkinseed	x	x	x							3
Pike-perch	x		x							2
Ruffe							x			1
Rainbow trout								x	x	2
Total number of exotic species	9	5	5	4	3	3	3	1	1

Figure 2. Altitude (data source: https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/GTOPO30) and separation of sampling sites based on the presence/absence of native and exotic species.