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publications > open file report > OFR 2010-1126 > introduction
U.S. Department of the Interior
Distribution of the Non-Native Gastropod Melanoides tuberculatus in Biscayne National Park, FloridaBy James B. Murray, G. Lynn Wingard, Emily C. PhillipsIntroduction
Melanoides tuberculatus (fig. 1), a gastropod that is not native to South Florida, was identified in Biscayne National Park (BNP) while researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey were conducting other studies around the Black Point canals in the summer of 2003. A study to determine the distribution, genetics, and salinity tolerance of this freshwater species began in 2004. For park managers and the recreational users of BNP, the presence of Melanoides tuberculatus is cause for concern because it is the intermediate host for several trematode parasites that affect humans and animals in multiple ways:
These snails are considered to be freshwater animals in their native habitat of Southeast Asia. However, they have been collected in BNP in both estuarine and marine waters along the western margins of BNP and, as far as 1.7 kilometers (km) from shore at the Black Point canal inflow into Biscayne Bay (383 live per square meter (/m2). In BNP, M. tuberculatus is a benthic inhabitant grazing on micro algal components at the sediment surface. A documented population with as many as 23,000/m2 was observed at Snapper Creek, near Coral Gables, FL (Roessler and others, 1977), north of BNP.
Methods > Related Information: SOFIA project: Historical Changes in Salinity, Water Quality, and Vegetation in Biscayne Bay |
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
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