Non-Native Species in the Ponto-Caspian Seas: Introduction, Impact, Geographical Distribution, Consequences

Author Biography

Tamara A. Shiganova, educated in ichthyology, aquaculture and marine biology, got PhD degree in ecology in 1976 and Dr. Sci (biology) degree in 2009. Since 1976 she is permanently affiliated with Shirshov Institute of Oceanology Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), where she holds position of Chief Scientist. Her research interests cover, but are not limited, the following topics: aquatic invaders and their impact on ecosystems (including the fish stocks and fishery), genetic analyses of target invaders’ species, study of pathways and vectors of invaders’ introduction in the Mediterranean Sea, the Ponto-Caspian seas and the Baltic Sea, biodiversity changes associated with invaders impact. She has published approximately 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 6 books. Being an internationally recognized expert, she is engaged in work of Living Marine Resources section of the GOOS program (IOC), SCOR (working group #115 - plankton methodology), Advisory group of the Caspian Environmental program, and Advisory board of CASPECO. Her scientific-organizational activity includes organization of international surveys and conferences and publishing of comprehensive summaries on the ecosystem state. She worked with the prominent scientist, Prof. Henri Dumont, on organization of international conference “The Invasion of the Black, Mediterranean and Caspian Seas by the American Ctenophore, Mnemiopsis leidyi Agassiz: a multidisciplinary perspective, and a comparison with other aquatic invasions” and publishing of its proceeding in Kluwer Academic Publishers.   She participated in many European projects, bringing together international efforts. She worked as a Chair of CIESM C5 committee “Living marine resources” in 2014-2017, organized CIESM/ICES conference with following release of proceedings “Mnemiopsis Science”, participated as a Member of Advisory board  and lecturer of Global Invasive Species and Globallast programs for the Black and Caspian seas and in Aliens OSPAR program of HELCOM for the Baltic Sea. Being highly demanded researcher, she used to work as invited scientist in numerous leading research centers in USA, Canada, France, Germany, Slovenia and others. Henri J. Dumont is a retired professor of Ecology at the University of Gent in Belgium and Jinan University in Guangdong province. He was the editor in chief of Hydrobiologia for 23 years (1980 -2003) and has over 500 papers in the fields of limnology (mainly zooplankton ecology and taxonomy) and entomology (Odonata). Alexander S. Kazmin, educated as geographer and physical oceanographer, during his career has been engaged in a variety of research projects, resulted in a number of significant achievements. He was one of the first authors who documented the multifrontal structure of the large-scale climatic oceanic frontal zones (OFZ), described global geography, climatology and seasonal variability of climatic OFZ in the World Ocean based on the regular global satellite measurements, revealed long-term (quasi-decadal) variability of main climatic OFZ, investigated decadal shift of the Canarian upwelling system intensity in the early 1990s and its effect on productivity, studied multi-decadal variability of hydro-meteorological parameters in the Black and Caspian seas etc. In recent years, his interest to the abiotic factors and climate change impact on marine ecosystems generate studies on variations of non-native ctenophores Mnemiopsis leidyi and Beroe ovata in Ponto-Caspian seas and possibility of their dispersal under global warming. Since 1979 he is permanently affiliated with Shirshov Institute of Oceanology Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and currently holds the position of leading scientist. He got a PhD degree from Moscow State University in 1980 and Dr. Sci. degree in 2014. He has published approximately one hundred papers in peer-reviewed journals and worked as a research scientist in Qingdao Maritime University (China), NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, Maryland, USA), Institute for Global Change Research (Tokyo, Japan), Instituto Nacional de Investigacio Agraria e das Pescas-IPIMAR (Lisbon, Portugal), University of Girona (Spain).