Functional responses can unify invasion ecology

Dick, Jaimie T. A.; Alexander, Mhairi E.; Ricciardi, Anthony; Laverty, Ciaran; Downey, Paul; Xu, Meng; Jeschke, Jonathan M.; Saul, Wolf‐Christian; Hill, Matthew P.; Wasserman, Ryan J.; Barrios‐O'Neill, Daniel; Weyl, Olaf L. F.; Shaw, Richard

doi:10.1007/s10530-016-1355-3

Cited by 90 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, recent comparisons of invader and native functional responses (FRs) have often yielded excellent explanatory and predictive power of invader impact on native prey populations (Alexander et al 2014a, b;Dick et al 2013Dick et al , 2014Dick et al , 2017, and this has recently been extended to damaging herbivorous invaders (e.g. golden apple snail; Xu et al 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…golden apple snail; Xu et al 2016). Indeed, the method is applicable to any taxonomic or trophic group due to the universal nature of organisms utilizing resources (Dick et al 2017). The comparative FR method has also allowed the incorporation of context-dependencies, once viewed as a serious impediment to impact prediction, for example, by highlighting how differential impacts of invasive and native predators on prey populations are likely to change under altered abiotic and biotic regimes (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, such an approach revealed that the magnitude of difference between invader and native FRs was correlated with actual field impacts of the bloody red shrimp Hemymysis anomala (Dick et al 2013). Thus, FRs provide mechanistic explanations of impact, that is, measurable features of individuals and their interactions with resources (Dick et al 2017). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has, however, received little application in invasion ecology, in particular because measures of per capita effects have been lacking . However, as detailed by Dick et al (2013Dick et al ( , 2014, the per capita effect of an invasive species may be quantified by its 'Functional Response' (FR), a classic metric used in ecology to describe and quantify the per capita effect of a predator on its prey as the density of the prey increases (Solomon 1949;Holling 1959a,b), but which can be applied across all taxonomic and trophic groups in any consumer/resource interaction (Dick et al , 2017. Together with the 'Numerical Response' (NR), which describes the change in a predator population as the density of prey increases, this forms the 'Total Response' (TR), such that:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We supplement this with FR data from N. melanostomus and another native comparator, the mottled sculpin Cottus bairdi, towards Gammarus prey (see Dubs and Corkum 1996), again with available abundance data. Then, we repeat this exercise with the highly invasive and ecologically damaging topmouth gudgeon, Pseudorasbora parva, an Asian fish which has also invaded European waters (Britton et al 2010;Gozlan et al 2010), and its native analogue the European bitterling, Rhodeus amarus, towards two prey species, Daphnia magna and Chironomus spp.. We stress that this exercise is to compare and quantify the impacts of the invaders on the broader prey community and it is not intended to examine any interaction, such as competition, among the invader and native fishes (but see Dick et al 2014Dick et al , 2017. Amphipods and isopods were chosen as common prey items of these fish species (see Welton et al 1991;Dubs and Corkum 1996;Corkum et al 2004;Barton et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Assessing the ecological impacts of invasive species based on their functional responses and abundances

Laverty

Green

Dick³

et al. 2017

Biol Invasions

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Invasive species management requires allocation of limited resources towards the proactive mitigation of those species that could elicit the highest ecological impacts. However, we lack predictive capacity with respect to the identities and degree of ecological impacts of invasive species. Here, we combine the relative per capita effects and relative field abundances of invader as compared to native species into a new metric, ''Relative Impact Potential'' (RIP), and test whether this metric can reliably predict high impact invaders. This metric tests the impact of invaders relative to the baseline impacts of natives on the broader ecological community. We first derived the functional responses (i.e. per capita effects) of two ecologically damaging invasive fish species in Europe, the Ponto-Caspian round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) and Asian topmouth gudgeon (Pseudorasbora parva), and their native trophic analogues, the bullhead (Cottus gobio; also C. bairdi) and bitterling (Rhodeus amarus), towards several prey species. This establishes the existence and relative strengths of the predator-prey relationships. Then, we derived ecologically comparable field abundance estimates of the invader and native fish from surveys and literature. This establishes the multipliers for the above per capita effects. Despite both predators having known 123Biol Invasions (2017) 19:1653-1665 DOI 10.1007/s10530-017-1378 severe detrimental field impacts, their functional responses alone were of modest predictive power in this regard; however, incorporation of their abundances relative to natives into the RIP metric gave high predictive power. We present invader/native RIP biplots that provide an intuitive visualisation of comparisons among the invasive and native species, reflecting the known broad ecological impacts of the invaders. Thus, we provide a mechanistic understanding of invasive species impacts and a predictive tool for use by practitioners, for example, in risk assessments.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Assessing the ecological impacts of invasive species based on their functional responses and abundances

Laverty

Green

Dick³

et al. 2017

Biol Invasions

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Predicting functional responses in agro‐ecosystems from animal movement data to improve management of invasive pests

Wilber

Chinn

Beasley

et al. 2019

Ecological Applications

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Functional responses describe how changing resource availability affects consumer resource use, thus providing a mechanistic approach to prediction of the invasibility and potential damage of invasive alien species (IAS). However, functional responses can be context dependent, varying with resource characteristics and availability, consumer attributes, and environmental variables. Identifying context dependencies can allow invasion and damage risk to be predicted across different ecoregions. Understanding how ecological factors shape the functional response in agro‐ecosystems can improve predictions of hotspots of highest impact and inform strategies to mitigate damage across locations with varying crop types and availability. We linked heterogeneous movement data across different agro‐ecosystems to predict ecologically driven variability in the functional responses. We applied our approach to wild pigs (Sus scrofa), one of the most successful and detrimental IAS worldwide where agricultural resource depredation is an important driver of spread and establishment. We used continental‐scale movement data within agro‐ecosystems to quantify the functional response of agricultural resources relative to availability of crops and natural forage. We hypothesized that wild pigs would selectively use crops more often when natural forage resources were low. We also examined how individual attributes such as sex, crop type, and resource stimulus such as distance to crops altered the magnitude of the functional response. There was a strong agricultural functional response where crop use was an accelerating function of crop availability at low density (Type III) and was highly context dependent. As hypothesized, there was a reduced response of crop use with increasing crop availability when non‐agricultural resources were more available, emphasizing that crop damage levels are likely to be highly heterogeneous depending on surrounding natural resources and temporal availability of crops. We found significant effects of crop type and sex, with males spending 20% more time and visiting crops 58% more often than females, and both sexes showing different functional responses depending on crop type. Our application demonstrates how commonly collected animal movement data can be used to understand context dependencies in resource use to improve our understanding of pest foraging behavior, with implications for prioritizing spatiotemporal hotspots of potential economic loss in agro‐ecosystems.

show abstract

The relationship between invader abundance and impact

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The impacts of invasive species generally increase with their abundance, but the form of invader abundance–impact relationships remain poorly described. We highlight the utility of abundance–impact curves for three questions. First, abundance–impact relationships can clarify whether prevention and management should focus on the species likely to become abundant or those likely to cause large impacts per individual. Second, comparing abundance–impact relationships between native and exotic species can reveal any systematic differences in their effects on ecological systems. Third, identifying any thresholds in the relationship between invader impact and abundance can be used to select management targets and design invasive species control strategies. With increasing extent and resolution of datasets of invasive organisms worldwide, we now have the opportunity to explore in detail the form and context dependence of the abundance–impact relationship. Doing so provides opportunities to improve the prediction of invader impact, to better understand the differences between exotic and resident organisms, and to scale the impacts of invasive species from localities to ranges.

show abstract

Functional responses can unify invasion ecology

Cited by 90 publications

References 32 publications

Assessing the ecological impacts of invasive species based on their functional responses and abundances

Assessing the ecological impacts of invasive species based on their functional responses and abundances

Predicting functional responses in agro‐ecosystems from animal movement data to improve management of invasive pests

The relationship between invader abundance and impact

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About