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Non-lethal effects of an invasive species in the marine environment: the importance of early life-history stages

  • Conservation Ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Studies examining the effects of invasive species have focussed traditionally on the direct/lethal effects of the invasive on the native community but there is a growing recognition that invasive species may also have non-lethal effects. In terrestrial systems, non-lethal effects of invasive species can disrupt early life-history phases (such as fertilisation, dispersal and subsequent establishment) of native species, but in the marine environment most studies focus on adult rather than early life-history stages. Here, we examine the potential for an introduced sessile marine invertebrate (Styela plicata) to exert both lethal and non-lethal effects on a native species (Microcosmus squamiger) across multiple early life-history stages. We determined whether sperm from the invasive species interfered with the fertilisation of eggs from the native species and found no effect. However, we did find strong effects of the invasive species on the post-fertilisation performance of the native species. The invasive species inhibited the settlement of native larvae and, in the field, the presence of the invasive species was associated with a ten-fold increase in the post-settlement mortality of the native species, as well as an initial reduction of growth in the native. Our results suggest that larvae of the native species avoid settling near the invasive species due to reduced post-settlement survival in its presence. Overall, we found that invasive species can have complex and pervasive effects (both lethal and non-lethal) across the early life-history stages of the native species, which are likely to result in its displacement and to facilitate further invasion.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to B. Galletly and A. Crean for assistance in the field. M.R. was supported by a travel grant from the Spanish “Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia” during his stay at the University of Queensland. This project was funded by projects DPO666147 of the Australian Research Council, and CTM2007-66635 and PIE 200730I026 of the Spanish Government. This work was carried out in accordance with the laws of Australia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Biologia Animal, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 645, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Marc Rius

  2. Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB, CSIC), Accés a la Cala S. Francesc 14, 17300, Blanes (Girona), Spain

    Xavier Turon

  3. School of Integrative Biology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Dustin J. Marshall

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  1. Marc Rius
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Correspondence to Marc Rius.

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Communicated by Geoffrey C. Trussell.

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Rius, M., Turon, X. & Marshall, D.J. Non-lethal effects of an invasive species in the marine environment: the importance of early life-history stages. Oecologia 159, 873–882 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1256-y

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