Science as a Giant Ouroboros: Limnoperna fortunei (and a few more) as a case of study

PATRICIO JAVIER PEREYRA; LUCAS MATÍAS MOLINA

Mar del Plata

Congreso; BIOLIEF; 2011

INIDEP

As invasive species, mollusk bivalves are considered high-invaders, both for its biologic and ecologic characteristics and for the enormous notoriety of Dreissena polymorpha. Despite this, and as occurring with other groups, attempts to control or avoid its dispersion are scarce. In this study we detail a categorization of works published between 1989 to the date (based on ISI Web of Knowledge, accessed on 24-5-11) with three widespread invasive species: the golden mussel, Limnoperna fortunei, the zebra mussel, D. polymorpha and the Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea. For each of those species we found 90 (L. fortunei), 934 (D. polymorpha) and 250 papers (C. fluminea). Observational works (at field and lab) were the once with the biggest amount of articles, with 44 papers of L. fortunei, 123 of C. fluminea and 429 of D. polymorpha (55, 49 and 46%, respectively). Experimental works were the second most important category with 323 papers of D. polymorpha (35%), 100 of C. fluminea (40%) and 13 of L. fortunei (14%). In every case, the works directly implied in conservational projects were the less represented, with zero papers for L. fortunei and C. fluminea, and 10 papers for D. polymorpha (≈ 1%). We discuss the relevancy of these results in the control and management of an invasive species, and also the possibility of making real conservation in Argentina inside of a scientific system that encourages the publication per se.