The enemy within: consequences of the invasive bullfrog on native anuran populations
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INVASION NOTE
The enemy within: consequences of the invasive bullfrog on native anuran populations Stephanie da Silva Silveira
. Murilo Guimara˜es
Received: 18 October 2019 / Accepted: 8 October 2020 Ó Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus, is one of the most important invasive anurans, affecting especially native anurans due to their similar habits. Here we used a hierarchical co-occurrence model fit in a Bayesian framework to investigate the effects of the bullfrog on two native frog species from southern Brazil, testing the hypothesis that bullfrog presence changes the activity of native species and their relationship with habitat. We found that both occupancy and detection probabilities of native species were similar with bullfrog presence or absence at a site. However, we observed changes in activity and microhabitat use preferences of both native species when the bullfrog was present, suggesting that the presence of the invasive species altered the behavior of the native species. Changes induced by invasive species can result in severe long-term consequences for native species since niche differentiation may not mediate the ability of species to persist together indefinitely.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02385-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. S. da Silva Silveira M. Guimara˜es (&) Programa de Po´s-Graduac¸a˜o em Biologia Animal, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil e-mail: [email protected]
Graphic abstract
Keywords Exotic frog Co-occurrence Niche theory Habitat use Lithobates catesbeianus
Introduction According to niche theory, species with similar functional traits are more likely to co-occur, while coexistence may promote competition and species exclusion (Leibold et al. 2009). The introduction of a non-indigenous competitor is especially critical,
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because native species share no evolutionary history with invasive species and thus, may be unable to cope with new competitors (Kats and Ferrer 2003). Such interaction can result in several temporary or permanent effects for resident species (Simberloff et al. 2013), including shifts in activity and behavior, and thus, influencing habitat use patterns over time (Mayer et al. 2015). The bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus, is one of the best-known invasive amphibian species worldwide and it has been related to population losses mainly due to competition and predation (Blaustein and Kiesecker 2002). Currently, biological invasions are among the main causes of worldwide amphibian declines (Kats and Ferrer 2003) and the invasive amphibians represent a real threat to native amphibians, given their niche similarities. Understanding the response of native populations to an invasive species can be critical to understand the invasion process, to predi
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