Distribution, population structure and ecosystem effects of the invader Cercopagis pengoi (Polyphemoidea, Cladocera) in the Gulf of Finland and the open Baltic Sea

Spatial distribution, density, biomass, population structure, predation effects, and the influence of abiotic environmental characteristics (salinity, water temperature, transparency, and depth) on a population of the Ponto-Caspian invasive cladoceran Cercopagis pengoi (Ostroumov, 1891) were studied in the Gulf of Finland and the open Baltic Sea (August 1999 and 2004). In our study in 1999, this species was first recorded in plankton of open south–eastern Baltic waters. The age and sexual structure of the C. pengoi population were interrelated with population density. The strongest impact of C. pengoi predation on the pelagic community in the Gulf of Finland was registered at the stations where the percentage of C. pengoi in the total zooplankton biomass was the highest. The calculated impact values of C. pengoi exceeded those registered a decade ago, during the first years after Cercopagis had invaded the eastern Gulf of Finland.