Evaluation of thermal tolerance of a native shrimp and a shrimp with potential bioinvasion

• Grant number: 22/15900-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2023
• End date: October 08, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Physiology of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Tânia Marcia Costa
• Grantee: Alice Mendonça Oliveira Moura Lima
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB-CLP). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Bioinvasion currently persists as a major ecological concern, which can generate several impacts on the ecosystem, being one of the main causes of biodiversity loss. Increasing temperature can enhance the process, which establishing success of non-native species happens when phenotypic plasticity in bioinvaders is larger. Research on thermal tolerance have a very important role in making possible to determine the survival range of species, both native and invasive, being able to assess possible scenarios for their distribution. The Potimirim potimirim is a native shrimp of the Atyidae family present in Brazilian rivers and streams. The Neocaridina davidi shrimp, have similar size and behavior, beyond to sharing the same niche with the native species. They come from an eastern tropical region of China, but they have already been found as bioinvaders in too many other parts of the world, mainly by the improper release of aquarism. In Brazil, although there still no records of N. davidi in nature, it's a species that has been earning great popularity in national aquariums. Therefore, the present study aims to determine the thermal tolerance of Potimirim potimirim (native species) and Neocaridina davidi (species of potential bioinvader). The animals will be collected twice (winter and summer) and kept in laboratory at different acclimatization temperatures (21, 24 and 27°C). After 21 days, they will pass by the thermal tolerance test in an ultrathermostatic bath, which the maximum and minimum critical temperature will be defined for the elaboration of the thermal polygon, to determine the thermal limits of the species, relating to the possible scenario of bioinvasion.