Hitchhiking Exotic Clam: Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas, 1771) Transported via the Ornamental Plant Trade

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I had only minor comments that are listed in the file attached, mostly regarded the English level.

After correcting, I will recommend this short note for publication

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your constructive comments. All suggestions were incorporated into the text. The changes are highlighted directly in the text file.

Sincerely,

Jiří Patoka

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The aquarium trade has been identified as an important mechanism of invasions of aquatic invertebrates throughout the World. As a result, today in many regions there is an intensive negatively affect native ecosystems. In this regard, this MS, makes contribution to the study of mechanisms distribution of invasive species. However, the article needs to significant revision and cannot be published in its current form. My comments see below.

The MS was not prepared according to the rules of the  MDPI:

Citations and References see https://www.mdpi.com/journal/diversity/instructions.

I couldn't find the rules for submitting short Communications in the authors ' guide of MDPI. However, I assume that MS of such type should contain combined Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions in a single section. I would recommend that the authors carefully edit these sections.

Material and methods

In the materials and methods, it should be indicate where the algae were collected in the Moscow River. Moscow River characterized the ice formation in winter (not along the entire length of the riverbed). In the center of city, the ice in river is broken during the entire winter period. The materials (algae) according to the article were sent to the Czech Republic in January. Please, specify the place of collection, if possible. Aegagropila linnaei  include to the list of rare and vulnerable taxa of the Moscow region, and in need of constant monitoring in the territory of the region.

Discussion

In my opinion, the Discussion section should include information about the current state of Dreissena polymorpha populations in the Moscow River, and similar cases of Dreissena polymorpha dispersal (if such are known). The cited by authors article Lvova, 2004 is devoted to Dreissena bugensis, and contains only a brief mention of zebra mussels.               

Literature

The article Patoka et al., 2020a should be cited first of all, then Patoka et al., 2020b.

Bowman S. 2021. there is no link in the main text.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your time and effort when evaluating our MS.

As Diversity accepts free-format submission, we defer the format requirements on the Editor. We would like to respect the rules for short communications if are mandatory.

Since Russian collectors of marimo balls keep the locality identity as discrete, it is not possible to add details as suggested. We agree that the distribution of this vulnerable plant and its monitoring in the wild is important. But unfortunately, this is out of our possibilities.

Details about the first introduction of zebra mussel in the Moscow river were added with reference. Its current dispersal was not found to be published elsewhere.

Literature corrected as suggested.

Reviewer 3 Report

This brief manuscript contains a report of a new way of zebra mussel transportation, which can be of interest to conservationists and other stakeholders.  Based on a single found specimen, this report is rather anecdotal, and it is unclear how frequent and important such a mechanism of dispersal can be. I could found no serious obstacles to accept this manuscript as it stands. However, I feel it would be very desirable to add one or two paragraphs about other known mechanisms of zebra mussel transportation, to put this finding in a broader context. Though the main way of dispersal of zebra mussel is its ‘natural’ spread through channels and other artificial constructions, human transport can also be viewed as a vector of this mollusc dispersal. For example, it was recently demonstrated that the overland transport of boats can facilitate dispersal of Dreissena polymorpha (Johnson et al., 2001; De Ventura et al. 2016).

Johnson L.E., Ricciardi A., Cartlon J.T. 2001. Overland dispersal of aquatic invasive species: a risk assessment of transient recreational boating. Ecological Applications, 11: 1789–1799

De Ventura L., Weissert N., Tobias R., Kopp K., Jokela J. 2016. Overland transport of recreational boats as a spreading vector of zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha. Biological Invasions, 18: 1451-1466.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your time and effort when evaluating our MS. The suggested information about introduction pathways (including references) was added in the text.

Sincerely,

Jiří Patoka