Abstract
Native predators can confer biotic resistance through consumption of invasive prey. However, early in the invasion process, native predators may initially ignore an invader when it is rare and only increase consumption once it becomes abundant. Furthermore, the willingness of native predators to consume novel invasive prey may be influenced by the similarity of the invader to other native prey species that are favored or familiar. Here we examined whether a native predator (the common mudcrab, Panopeus herbstii) consumes the invasive filter-feeding crab, Petrolisthes armatus as a function of P. armatus abundance relative to native prey and the similarity of P. armatus to native prey. Using choice experiments, we quantified consumption of invasive P. armatus when its abundance was either rare, equal, or more abundant than native prey that were either taxonomically similar (crab, Eurypanoepus depressus) or dissimilar (mussel, Geukensia demissa) to the invader. We found that the absolute consumption of invasive P. armatus increased as its relative availability increased, but only in treatments where the alternative prey was a native crab. This suggests that prior experience of the native predator with a similar prey may prime the predator to consume more invasive P. armatus. A hierarchical Bayesian analysis determined that both native prey species were preferentially consumed by the native predator P. herbstii even when native prey were rare or equal in abundance to invasive P. armatus. These results suggest that density-dependent predation plus a persistent preference for native prey by native P. herbstii predators may help explain how P. armatus escapes its natural enemies.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Christopher Tonra for comments on an earlier draft. We thank Dr. Jeremy Brooks with assistance with the figures. We thank the faculty and staff at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography for access to their facilities.
Funding
Funding was provided in part by an Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) SEEDS grant to KAK and by OSU’s School of Environment and Natural Resources and the OARDC to LMP. Funding for this project was also provided by the OSU’s Mayers Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship and the OSU Undergraduate Student Government Academic Enrichment Grant to ACM.
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ACM, KAK, JEB and LMP conceived and designed the experiments. ACM and KAK performed the experiments. KAK, LMP, JEB analyzed the data. KAK, LMP, and JEB wrote the manuscript.
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Kinney, K.A., Pintor, L.M., Mell, A.C. et al. Density-dependent predation and predator preference for native prey may facilitate an invasive crab’s escape from natural enemies. Biol Invasions 25, 2967–2976 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-023-03085-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-023-03085-5