C.7 – Reinforcements population of Austropotamobius pallipes
The reinforcements population will be carried out in appropriate areas within the area covered by the project. Since it has proven the existence of a strong genetic differentiation within this area of activity, the individuals used in each locality must come from production lines based on parent from the same basin. In each of these areas will be chosen between 1 and 7 sectors where reinforcements will be conducted with specimens from captive breeding center.
These sectors have been established from the available information on the population and metapopulation structure in each basin, and an extensive knowledge about the general state of the species and their habitats throughout the last 15 years, thanks to previous efforts of various experts. The number of releases per year will be based on the results of the annual breeding.
EXPECTED RESULTS
In the case of sectors where there is still Austropotamobius pallipes populations, an increase in density and especially the relative rejuvenation of the population is expected, for their long-term consolidation. Given the precarious state of many of these cores, this action is expected to avoid short-term disappearance of the 32 existing populations in the area of action, that are currently in strong risk. In sectors where the species has disappeared, but always in the area covered by the project, this will enable the establishment of new populations, between 15 and 20 in total.
