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Summary: Chapter thirty
Assessing the trophic ecology
of crayfish: a case study of
the invasive Procambarus
clarkii
Mari´a Crehuet, Paloma Alcorlo, Miguel Angel
Bravo-Utrera, Angel Baltana´s, and Carlos Montes
INTRODUCTION
Freshwater crayfish, among the largest invertebrate members of biological
communities in non-marine ecosystems throughout the world, have a func-
tional role that is tightly linked to their trophic ecology both as consumers of a
large variety of food sources and as prey for a number of vertebrate predators
ranging from fish to mammals (Hogger 1988). Although the low diversity of
crayfish species in Europe, as compared to that in North America, might suggest
a low significance of this group to the functioning of ecosystem, the recent
introduction of several non-indigenous species has changed this view dramati-
cally (Chapter 28).
Severe environmental impacts at both the population and the ecosystem level
followed those introductions. Impacts produced on other (indigenous) crayfish
should be distinguished from those impacts affecting non-crayfish species. The
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