Ecosystem context and historical contingency in apex predator recoveries

Stier, Adrian C.; Samhouri, Jameal F.; Novák, Márk; Marshall, Kristin N.; Ward, Eric J.; Holt, Robert D.; Levin, Phillip S.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501769

Cited by 69 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 133 publications

(134 reference statements)

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“…Many keystone top predators have suffered dramatic declines due to anthropogenic disturbances, and this has resulted in destabilized food web dynamics, trophic cascades and regime shifts (Baum & Worm, ; Casini et al., ; DeYoung et al., ). This has called for intense management efforts world‐wide, but only few populations have been able to recover and the global status of both aquatic and terrestrial top predators remains poor (Myers & Worm, ; Stier et al., ). A potential cause to failed recoveries of top predators is that their recruitment is impaired by predator–prey reversal (Barkai & McQuaid, ; Cardinale & Svedäng, ; Fauchald, ; Gårdmark et al., ; Myers & Worm, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This includes climate change, eutrophication and predator release (Candolin, Engstroem‐Öst, & Salesto, ; Mackenzie, Gislason, Möllmann, & Köster, ; Prugh et al., ; Ritchie & Johnson, ; Sieben et al., ). Adding to the complexity, mesopredator release commonly involves declines in multiple top predatory species that may be present simultaneously or during specific stages of the mesopredator life cycle (Prugh et al., ; Ritchie & Johnson, ; Stier et al., ). For instance, the predator release of Baltic Sea sticklebacks may also be associated with the collapse of the offshore top predators cod ( Gadus morhua ) and salmon ( Salmo salar ) that will drastically increase stickleback survival during its pelagic life stage (Casini et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Top predators have suffered catastrophic declines world‐wide due to anthropogenic disturbances, such as overexploitation and habitat loss, with dramatic consequences for trophic dynamics, community organization, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Myers & Worm, ; Prugh et al., ; Ritchie & Johnson, ; Scheffer & Carpenter, ; Stier et al., ). For instance, reduced abundances of top predators commonly result in trophic cascades with increased abundances of smaller‐sized predatory species, that is a mesopredator release (Baum & Worm, ; Casini et al., ; Ritchie & Johnson, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predator–prey role reversal may impair the recovery of declining pike populations

Nilsson

Flink

Tibblin

2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Many fish populations have experienced declines in recent decades due to anthropogenic disturbances, such as overfishing and habitat exploitation. Despite management actions, many populations show a limited capacity to recover. This may be attributed to reversal of predator–prey roles, yet empirical evidence to that effect remains scarce. Here, we combine field and laboratory studies to investigate the interaction between pike (Esox lucius), a large keystone top predatory fish, and the small‐bodied mesopredatory threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in the Baltic Sea where pike populations have declined. Our data suggest that stickleback predation on pike larvae depletes a large proportion of the recruitment and influences the size distribution through size‐selective predation, which is corroborated by a gape‐limitation experiment and diet analysis of wild‐captured sticklebacks. The effects of stickleback predation are present across several populations and years, and our data suggest that early arrival of sticklebacks has stronger effects on juvenile pike survival. Finally, we use data on pike gape‐limitation and the size distribution of sticklebacks to illustrate the process of role reversal. These findings suggest that mesopredator behaviour can reduce recruitment of a top predator species and impair the capacity of populations to recover. This emphasizes predator–prey role reversal as an important ecological and evolutionary driver that influences the outcome of restoration and management actions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predator–prey role reversal may impair the recovery of declining pike populations

Nilsson

Flink

Tibblin

2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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“…While there are nuanced differences among the recovery trajectories of these six species (further details provided in Appendix ), the general trend of recovery is shared among phocids and otariids across the Northwest Atlantic and Northeast Pacific alike (with limited exceptions in Alaska; National Research Council ), despite differences in community dynamics and historical contingencies that ecological theory suggests should dictate recovery trajectories (Stier et al. ). Rather, these cases suggest that pinniped species share an impressive ability to recover despite their relatively slow life histories and that recovery trajectories are driven largely by management efforts.…”

Section: Focal Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predator recovery, shifting baselines, and the adaptive management challenges they create

2019

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Recent species recoveries following historical depletion have been widely celebrated as conservation success stories. However, the recovery of highly interactive species, particularly predators, generates new management challenges that arise from their potential for wide‐ranging effects on local ecosystems and their poorly understood ecology. In marine systems, many pinniped species share parallel histories of depletion, recovery, and human conflict. Recovering from post‐exploitation populations of small size, these pinnipeds have returned to their present abundance from a largely absent, or severely reduced, recent role in many coastal ecosystems. To address the challenges arising today from real or perceived overabundance of protected pinniped species, we evaluate the prehistorical, historical, and contemporary abundances of six pinniped species that breed in the contiguous United States. This review highlights gaps in current knowledge that limit the implementation of ecologically grounded approaches to adaptive management of protected species in a time of shifting, or lifting, baselines. To address these gaps will require a diverse cadre of natural and social scientists as well as stakeholders to tackle the questions of how we define recovery at a species or ecosystem level, and when we have reached this point, how we move forward in a way that does not repeat a history of depletion, conservation, and recovery. Doing so will require an understanding of what role highly interactive species play in their ecosystems and how this role shifts with changes in ecological context, as well as the sociological and economic impacts of species restoration to humans. This knowledge is integral to the ongoing transition from a focus on preventing species extinction to new, and often unanticipated, challenges arising from the functional implications of species recovery.

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“…However, these ecosystem benefits are not guaranteed and depend on community complexity, predator behaviour, diseases and interactions with lower trophic levels (Ritchie et al, 2012;Stier et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Top‐down effects of repatriating bald eagles hinder jointly recovering competitors

Cruz

Windels

Thogmartin

et al. 2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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The recovery of piscivorous birds around the world is touted as one of the great conservation successes of the 21st century, but for some species, this success was short‐lived. Bald eagles, ospreys and great blue herons began repatriating Voyageurs National Park, USA, in the mid‐20th century. However, after 1990, only eagles continued their recovery, while osprey and heron recovery failed for unknown reasons. We aimed to evaluate whether top‐down effects of bald eagles and bottom‐up effects of inclement weather, habitat quality and fish resources contributed to the failed recovery of ospreys and herons in a protected area. We quantified the relative influence of top‐down and bottom‐up factors on nest colonization, persistence (i.e., nest reuse) and success for ospreys, and occurrence and size of heronries using 26 years (1986–2012) of spatially explicit monitoring data coupled with multi‐response hierarchical models and Bayesian variable selection approaches. Bald eagles were previously shown to recover faster due to intensive nest protection and management. Increased numbers of eagles were associated with a reduction in the numbers of osprey nests, their nesting success and heronry size, while higher local densities of nesting eagles deterred heronries nearby. We found little evidence of bottom‐up limitations on the failed recovery of herons and ospreys. We present a conservation conundrum: bald eagles are top predators and a flagship species of conservation that have benefited from intensive protection, but this likely hindered the recovery of ospreys and herons. Returning top predators, or rewilding, is widely promoted as a conservation strategy for top‐down ecosystem recovery, but managing top predators in isolation of jointly recovering species can halt or reverse ecosystem recovery. Previous studies warn of the potential consequences of ignoring biotic interactions amongst recovering species, but we go further by quantifying how these interactions contributed to failed recoveries via impacts on the nesting demography of jointly recovering species. Multi‐species management is paramount to realizing the ecosystem benefits of top predator recovery.

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Ecosystem context and historical contingency in apex predator recoveries

Abstract: Variable life histories, species interactions, and historical contingency underlie why some predators recover and others do not.

Cited by 69 publications

References 133 publications

Predator–prey role reversal may impair the recovery of declining pike populations

Predator–prey role reversal may impair the recovery of declining pike populations

Predator recovery, shifting baselines, and the adaptive management challenges they create

Top‐down effects of repatriating bald eagles hinder jointly recovering competitors

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