Alabama - Mississippi Rapid Assessment Team

Who are we?

The Alabama Mississippi Rapid Assessment Team (AMRAT) is a cooperative effort to search for and catalogue any aquatic nuisance species found in the coastal waters of Mississippi and Alabama.  Many people are working together to bring this effort to life, and they included representatives from the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, the University of Southern Mississippi/Center for Fisheries Research and Development/Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, the Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources/Marine Resources Division, the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, and many others.

What is a “rapid assessment”?

A rapid assessment is a sampling effort of short duration (1 to 3 days) in a targeted, well-defined geographic area.  The Alabama Mississippi rapid assessment will sample Mobile Bay and the Alabama portion of Mississippi Sound for 4 days in September, 2003.  This will be followed shortly by a similar assessment of the Mississippi Sound off the Mississippi coast in 2004.  For the assessment, individuals have been recruited from all over the southeast to sample our coastal waters in a variety of ways, including trawling, seine netting, hand netting, hand picking of animals, scraping of fouling organisms from surfaces, among others.  The approach is to collect as many different organisms as possible, return the organisms to a laboratory for identification, separate native from non-native organisms, identify any non-native organisms as possible, and send those unidentified organisms to specialists for positive identification.  The list of non-native species then forms the pool of potential invasive species.

What is the difference between “non-native” and “invasive” species?

A non-native species is simply one that has been introduced to an area in which it was not historically present.  This introduction can be either intentionally, such as the introduction of a beetle to eat aphids destroying crops, or unintentionally through various means such as ballast water.  A non-native species would also include species native to North America that have been introduced to areas outside their usual ranges within the country, such as the Coho Salmon which is native to the west coast of the U.S., but has since been introduced to the Great Lakes.  Non-native species are also known as nonindigenous, alien or exotic species.  Studying nonindigenous organisms is important if we are to determine what effects they may have on the native organisms and the environment.

An invasive species is a nonindigenous species that when introduced causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.  Since these introduced nuisance species are coming in as a new face to a biological system, they rarely have predators that would naturally keep their numbers in check.  Without predators, an invasive species can potentially outcompete native species for resources such as food and habitat.  Another danger from invasive species is that they may breed with native species, diluting or introducing characteristics into the gene pool that would not naturally occur.  For these and other reasons, invasive species can pose a major threat to endangered species, second only behind the destruction of habitat.

An example of an invasive species is the zebra mussel.  Zebra mussels, native to Poland and the former Soviet Union, were first discovered in North American Great Lakes in 1988, and have since spread to many states, including Alabama.  Between 1993 and 1999, researchers estimated that losses to industries, businesses and communities as a result of zebra mussels topped $5 billion nationwide due to blocked intake pipes, infestations of boat hulls, marine structures and navigational buoys and beaches covered with sharp-edged shells and rotting flesh.

Why worry about invasive species?

Once an invasive is established, it may prey upon or compete with native species of plants, fish and wildlife, as well as carry harmful diseases or parasites.  The potential environmental impacts of an invasive species include a loss of biodiversity, stunted fish stocks, decreased water quality and habitat value, and impeded water flow.  The potential economic impacts include a decrease in recreational opportunities due to impaired water quality and swimmer safety concerns, a decrease in commercial opportunities and adverse effects on important fisheries industries, lower property values, impeded water flow and increased risk of flooding.

Can some plants be considered an invasive species?

Not only animals, but plants can also be considered invasive species.  Plants form the foundation of biological communities, and invasive plant species can alter an ecosystem substantially.  The five Gulf states together have more than 30 species of non-indigenous aquatic plants, which includes the notorious hydrilla.  Hydrilla, shown to be a problem in all the Gulf states, reproduces by fragmentation.  When it is cut each piece produces a new plant, allowing the species to quickly impede waterways, overgrow and shadow native plants and clog waterways. Several million dollars have been spent by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tennessee Valley Authority and Alabama Power trying to control the spread of this species.

Where can we find out the results of the rapid assessment?

The results of the Alabama Mississippi rapid assessment will be made available on the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program’s website, http://www.mobilebaynep.com.

What happens next?

This is the first year of the project.  We hope to have great weather and great success in cataloguing potential invasive species in Mobile Bay and the surrounding waters.  In 2004, Mississippi will also be doing a rapid assessment of the Mississippi coastal waters and Mississippi Sound.  As this rapid assessment gives us a snapshot view of species we have in our coastal waters, we hope to perform another assessment during late spring/early summer of 2004 to determine if there any seasonality differences in species.