IBIOMAR - CENPAT   25620
INSTITUTO DE BIOLOGIA DE ORGANISMOS MARINOS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Following the shadow of biological invasions: Expeditions and vectors of the 19th Century
Autor/es:
VEZUB, JULIO ESTEBAN; HALLER, SOFÍA CLARA; SCHWINDT, EVANGELINA
Lugar:
Buenos Aires
Reunión:
Congreso; Marine and Freshwater Invasive Species; 2016
Institución organizadora:
Aquatic Ecosistem Health & Management Society (AEHMS), CONICET
Resumen:
Motivated by scientific, commercial and political reasons, the coast of Patagonia (Argentina) was for centuries visited by hundreds of vessels that acted as vectors of sheep, rats, plants and seeds that travelled on board together with the solid ballast and the fouling organisms attached to the vessels. In order to start analyzing the impact that these historical trips have had on the introduction and dispersion of species, the movements of the ships in the region were reconstructed for the 19th Century. In this work we present the results about maritime traffic generated by the scientific expeditions in the Patagonic coast and surrounding areas. From the database of ?Sea Around Us?, completed with information provided by encyclopedic data from international and national sources, we extracted a list of expeditions that have anchored in the region. Through the journals of the trips and/or the published results of the expeditions, the voyages were mapped and a record was made with the descriptions of biodiversity of the region, patterns of navigation, anchorage time and place, and seasonality of the trips. Finally, the voyages were analyzed as symptomatic of the inter-oceanic connections of the period, taking into account the expeditions? purposes and the main maritime links. All data together allowed for the establishment of hypotheses about species? introductions. Results show that most of the scientific expeditions originated in the northern hemisphere (Europe and North America). Some of them stopped first in Brazil or Uruguay and then in Patagonia in coastal areas such as Carmen de Patagones, Port Louis, Puerto Deseado, San Julián, which are not important ports in modern times. Several introduced species were reported during the expeditions which suggest that this could be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the anthropogenic impact along the Patagonian coast, frequently considered as pristine.