The Unseen Menace

Math 101-04

Melissa Geary

Dr Vanetta

January 20th 2023

 Introduction

You may have seen articles about this around fishing season. If you have not then I will

be your guide. Invasive species in our local waterways are some of the most troubling and the

most overlooked problems to date. When you think you are doing a good deed by releasing that

carnival goldfish into your local lake; I urge you to stop and reconsider. Many fish that are not

native to the natural ecosystem are both vastly unprepared for the dangers that lay ahead for them

and for the native species around them. They can bring with them viruses and disease that would

wreak havoc on the native population. Much like how the Native American tribes were

devastated by smallpox thanks to Christopher Columbus a foreign virus or infection brought in

by a store bought fish can devastate the local population. This is not the only issue with invasive

species however. Non native fish competing for the the same food sources causes premature die

off and with a diminished breeding population this can introduce genetic problems to the species

as a whole.

One of the first things we can do is optimize the location of watercraft inspection

stations. Chief among the first things sorely lacking are steady budgets and an actual plan

to bring in more high risk boats for inspection and education. Many are brought in now

but at the rate invasive species are getting into both the water supply and the local

ecosystems if more is not done there will not be a population left to save.The program

that was developed by the authors allows for an allocation of scarce inspection resources
 among lakes. More could be done with this program however and I see it as a stepping

stone to future possibilities as well as future jobs.

Not to mention the cost of preserving our ecosystems there is the overall global

cost By using a comprehensive global database every variable has been accounted for. This

includes taxa, geographic regions,cost types and temporal dynamics among others. The final cost

was a staggering $345 BILLION and that’s on the conservative side.Most likely the cost is much

higher if a through audit of the program would be conducted.

Overall I do see that everyone SEES this to be a problem and there are a

lot of ideas; which is good don’t get me wrong. However what I think needs to happen is

some clear general direction on where to go next and for those who do travel make it

worth their time and money to be more careful of the invasive species that are brought in

if traveling by boat. I would also levy fines on those caught releasing invasive species

into the local water supply which would then help fund the programs we are so sorely

lacking.

I found the same in my final article and interestingly enough the invasive

species spoken about in this article is the sucker-mouth catfish whom if any who are

reading this know any history of the TV series Dark Shadows know that Martinique

seems to have a problem with them ;Angelique’s birthplace.

 They are very much like the aforementioned witch in the fact they are

seemingly innocuous but with a spawn rate of 200 eggs and a hatch time of only 10 days

they make an ideal colonizer and can and will wipe out the native species there if left

unchecked. The authors developed a species specific molecular tool that allows for early

detection and monitoring of not just the sucker-mouth catfish but also any invasive

species in a tropical climate that finds conditions applicable to its needs.

This for the moment still reinforces my belief of there needing to be a global

task force set up so there are resources and standard practices available to all instead of

everyone trying to put out the fires in their own backyard thereby pushing them to

another.

Data Analysis

There are many ideas that have surfaced but there’s no real sense of general direction as to where

to go next .
Figure 1
3 Influence of total volume filtered, oxygen concentration and saturation, altitude ,conductivity

and pH on the detection probability of Hypostomus robinni by the author’s eDNA based essay in

Martinique, following the site occupancy modeling treatment.The colored dots represent the

mean values of the dataset for each station and the bars represent confidence intervals.
 Figure 2

Table 1 Optimal lake selection for increasing number of inspection stations accounting for boat

movements inside and outside of Stearns County (Problem1)

Figure 3

A graph reporting the costs of invasive species and types

Invertebrates (purple at 62 percent) vertebraes (pink 28 percent) plants (teal 6 percent)

Costs North America (48 percent red) Asia (13 percent rainbow)

All of the above data has something to offer in one form or another. In the first

table we see the influence of non aquatic organisms on the probability that a certain aquatic

organism will be found.Just like how if speaking from a hobbyist perspective that if you raise the

temperature in your tank you increase the likelihood that certain species of fish will breed. The

same is true here that if these trends are followed there is more a likelihood to find the

suckermouth catfish. Being that it is an invasive species this data can be used to gradually make

changes to the ecosystem be it increasing certain plants that lower the pH down to unacceptable

levels for the catfish to flourish or increasing the oxygen so that other less invasive predators to

the catfish find their way into the ecosystem and keep the population in check the result is the

same.
 In the second figure we do not look at fish per se but people instead.To be more

specific people and their boats that could potentially be carrying an invasive species into the

waters. If we pay close attention to how the graphs are set up and where the watercraft inspection

stations are; we can infer that this could be used as a general equation world wide to lessen the

affect of invasive micro species being transported by careless boaters.

Finally our third graph shows that rather than vertebrates it is invertebrates that cause

the most trouble for anyone’s pocketbook. With the study done it also shows that North

American invertebrates have the most potential to cause the most damage to the ecosystem. This

thereby would also cause the most damage to the American taxpayer’s pocketbook.

Data analysis

Total volume filtered = V

Oxygen saturation =O

Temperature = T

0.80V *0.75O = 0.6/25

 Since the math for all of these equations was a bit all over the place I opted instead to take 2

different tables in figure 2 and see if I could use the x y method to predict where the points

would fall on the 3rd graph. So I took the first point on volume graph and multiplied it to the first

point on the oxygen saturation graph. This brought me to 0.6 which if you note graph 3 the

temperature graph intersects with 25.0 hence my final conclusion of 0.6/25.

I did this this way because it was the simplest and easiest thing I could think of under the

circumstances to show.

Model B Equation

However if man were to take a more direct approach into ensuring that the waterways in

question were closer monitored there would be some further interesting implications as I will

detail below.

GPH= gallons per hour (usually the highest rated pump is roughly about 50,000 gallons if we are

speaking in aquatic terms with others being custom built on a case by case basis)

V= total volume filtered (I know this sounds similar but it’s with reason promise!)

O = oxygen saturation

0.80* 0.75 /50,000 = 0.000012 = 1 hour period

0.000012* 24= 0.000288 = gallons per day

 Here I also stuck with a linear equation as it was the most simple and straight forward for

me. I wondered if man were to meddle in the ecosystem how many extra gallons of water would

be filtered in a day?

To that end I first did some research on the kind of water pumps used in aquarium settings to

find out what the biggest commercially available one was.After checking several sites I found

out that it was 50,000 gallons. I plugged that number in with the two I already knew and got my

first answer. But that was only for a 1 hour period so I had to take that answer and multiply it by

24 to get a full day picture.

Conclusion

While much of what has been learned here today may not seem to inter connect that’s the

furthest thing from the truth. Even a question of what to do going forward has been a topic of hot

debate but everyone knows SOMETHING needs to be done. The research supplied shows a few

different schools of thought. The next steps I would personally take would be first; on the note of

the watercraft inspection stations,to get these up and running first and foremost and use the

money collected from fines to put toward further research programs to help control invasive

aquatic species on all fronts.

 Next I would take the data collected from the worldwide research done about the

different aquatic invasive species by country. I would find out WHY the species listed are so

popular and put further funds to education and care so that when people DO order them from the

online trade they understand exactly what they need to do and don’t ‘window shop’ or ‘impulse

buy’

Lastly concerning the rise of suckermouth catfish in Martinique there would need to be a

multifaceted approach. First there would be steps taken to make the waters less hospitable to

them. Failing that I would seek out a compatible less invasive natural predator to the

suckermouth catfish. I would from there conduct a 5 year plan where the number of catfish vs the

amount of predators to ensure there’s a proper balance between the two and there’s no harm to

the ecosystem overall.

I left several threads for a future researcher.What they do with the remainder of this is up to

them and I’d be excited to see what they would do next.

3) The development of early monitoring tools to detect aquatic invasive

species :eDNA assay development and the case of the armored catfish Hypostmus Robinni
Academic Journal
 By. Alexandre Arqué Baudry, Thomas. Clarisse Courty Delaunay, Carine Dubreuil,

Thomas; Grandjean, Frédéric Mauvisseau, Quentin;Sweet, Michael;. Environmental

DNA.   Mar2022, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p349-362. 14p. DOI: 10.1002/edn3.260. 

https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.proxy1.unity.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=661e38ce-ad54-4594-

a5e6-7158abce03cf%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d

(2)Optimizing the location of watercraft inspection stations to slow the spread of aquatic invasive

species By: Haight, Robert G.; Kinsley, Amy C.; Kao, Szu-Yu; Yemshanov, Denys; Phelps,

Nicholas B. D.. In: Biological Invasions. December, 2021, Vol. 23 Issue 12, p3907, 13 p.;

Springer, 2021. Language: English, Database: Gale Academic OneFile

https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.proxy1.unity.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=661e38ce-ad54-4594-

a5e6-7158abce03cf%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d

(1)Global Economic Costs of Aquatic invasive species Elsevier 2021-07-09T14:08:18Z 2021-07-

09T14:08:18Z 2021-01-20

https://eds-s-ebscohost-com.proxy1.unity.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=31d9c925-a917-45bb-84e2-
cf69b1490708%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=edsoai.on1268109456&db=edsoai