Volume 68
Invasive Lionfish Increase Density-independent Mortality and Cause Local Extinctions of Native Prey on Atlantic Coral Reefs
Authors
Ingeman, K.E. and M.A. Hixon Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2015
Pages: 163 - 164
Event: Proceedings of the Sixty eigth Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Panama City
Country: Panama
Abstract
Invasive predators have caused some of the most severe impacts of species introductions (Salo et al. 2007, Jones et al. 2008) and have precipitated numerous extinctions via strong, direct, consumptive effects (Blackburn et al. 2004, Kumschick et al. 2015). These invasive predator-mediated extinctions necessarily imply a disruption of the mechanisms that had previously regulated native populations. One condition of regulation is a compensatory response in one or more demo-graphic rates to changes in prey density, causing populations to increase when rare and to decrease when abundant (Murdoch 1994, Hixon et al. 2002). Therefore, predicting the impact of a novel predator requires an understanding of whether and how the invader alters existing compensatory mechanisms that underlie native population regulation; in particular how the invader affects a prey species demographic response to changes in its own density.