The lionfish Pterois sp. invasion: Has the worst‐case scenario come to pass?

Abstract

This review revisits the traits thought to have contributed to the success of Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois sp. as an invader in the western Atlantic Ocean and the worst-case scenario about their potential ecological effects in light of the more than 150 studies conducted in the past 5 years. Fast somatic growth, resistance to parasites, effective anti-predator defences and an ability to circumvent predator recognition mechanisms by prey have probably contributed to rapid population increases of lionfish in the invaded range. However, evidence that lionfish are strong competitors is still ambiguous, in part because demonstrating competition is challenging. Geographic spread has likely been facilitated by the remarkable capacity of lionfish for prolonged fasting in combination with other broad physiological tolerances. Lionfish have had a large detrimental effect on native reef-fish populations in the northern part of the invaded range, but similar effects have yet to be seen in the southern Caribbean. Most other envisaged direct and indirect consequences of lionfish predation and competition, even those that might have been expected to occur rapidly, such as shifts in benthic composition, have yet to be realized. Lionfish populations in some of the first areas invaded have started to decline, perhaps as a result of resource depletion or ongoing fishing and culling, so there is hope that these areas have already experienced the worst of the invasion. In closing, we place lionfish in a broader context and argue that it can serve as a new model to test some fundamental questions in invasion ecology.

Data quality and quantity for invasive species: A case study of the lionfishes

“…In total, returned literature for all lionfishes outside the invasive complex comprised less than 10% of what has been published on the invasive complex. Despite the high quantity of literature addressing the invasive complex in the last decade, research is ongoing on several major questions have yet to be answered (Côté & Smith, ). The invasive complex has seen a considerable shift from early descriptive studies that serve as a literary foundation to manipulative studies that more closely examine the invasion process (Schofield & Loftus, ), which will likely aid in future control efforts directed toward the invasive complex.…”

“…In total, returned literature for all lionfishes outside the invasive complex comprised less than 10% of what has been published on the invasive complex. Despite the high quantity of literature addressing the invasive complex in the last decade, research is ongoing on several major questions have yet to be answered (Côté & Smith, 2018).…”

“…However, the application of risk screening tools requires an understanding of potential errors arising from the quantity and quality of data inputs. While previous evaluations of the current state of knowledge regarding the invasive complex show how research focus has shifted temporally (Côté, Green, & Hixon, ; Côté & Smith, ), no comparisons have been made to the current state of knowledge on other lionfish species or the impact of this potential uncertainty on proactive risk management. Despite potential false positives, well‐informed risk screening processes provide an effective alternative to post‐spread impact mitigation (Keller, Lodge, & Finnoff, ).…”

Understanding fish populations

“…Salmo salar was also the focus of studies of population genetics undertaken at the landscape scale by Cauwelier et al (2018) and Ikediashi et al (2018) in north-east and southern U.K., respectively, while S. trutta was also used as a model species by Arevalo et al (2018) to investigate experimentally the likely effects of climate change on young salmonids. Representation of this session theme is completed by an elegant experimental study of welfare management for the widespread laboratory model species zebrafish Danio rerio (Hamilton 1822) performed by Lee et al (2018) and an extensive and authoritative review by Côté & Smith (2018) of over 150 studies addressing the remarkable invasion ecology of the Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterosis sp. The challenges and opportunities facing fish biology were considered by the discussion paper of Jacobs et al (2018) using a framework of five key knowledge gaps comprising the use of fish biology to inform aquaculture and wild fisheries to address food security, the use of evolutionary biology to predict contemporary responses to stressors, the use of correlated traits to improve predictions of responses to environmental change, the use of existing datasets and new analytical approaches to gain novel insights, and the use of animal collective behaviour to understand better the group level impacts of environmental stressors.…”

“…Representation of this session theme is completed by an elegant experimental study of welfare management for the widespread laboratory model species zebrafish Danio rerio (Hamilton 1822) performed by Lee et al . () and an extensive and authoritative review by Côté & Smith () of over 150 studies addressing the remarkable invasion ecology of the Indo‐Pacific lionfish Pterosis sp. The challenges and opportunities facing fish biology were considered by the discussion paper of Jacobs et al .…”