Invasions of ecological communities: Hints of impacts in the invader's growth rate
Date
2021-10-11
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Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
1. Theory in ecology and evolution often relies on the analysis of invasion processes,
and general approaches exist to understand the early stages of an invasion.
However, predicting the long-term
transformations of communities following an
invasion remains a challenging endeavour.
2. We propose a general analytical method that uses both resident community and
invader dynamical features to predict whether an invasion causes large long-term
impacts on the invaded community.
3. This approach reveals a direction in which classic invasion analysis, based on initial
invasion growth rate, can be extended. Indeed, we explain how the density dependence
of invasion growth, if properly defined, synthetically encodes the long-term
biotic transformations caused by an invasion, and therefore predicts its ultimate
outcome. This approach further clarifies how the density dependence of the invasion
growth rate is as much a property of the invading population as it is one of the
invaded community.
4. Our theory applies to any stable community model, and directs us towards new
questions that may enrich the toolset of invasion analysis, and suggests that indirect
interactions and dynamical stability are key determinants of invasion outcomes.
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 6 September 2021; Published - 11 October 2021.
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Keywords
adaptive dynamics, alternative stable states, coexistence, ecological stability, extinctions, feedback loops, invasion fitness, press perturbation
Citation
Arnoldi, J., Barbier, M., Kelly, R., Barabás, G. and Jackson, A. L. (2021) ‘Invasions of ecological communities: Hints of impacts in the invader’s growth rate’, Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Wiley. doi: 10.1111/2041-210x.13735.