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Substrate mediated predator–prey interactions between invasive crayfish and indigenous and non-native amphipods

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posted on 2020-08-04, 14:38 authored by C Beatty, Kate MathersKate Mathers, C Patel, D Constable, Paul WoodPaul Wood
© 2020, The Author(s). The increasing number of taxa being translocated across the globe is leading to many non-native species encountering indigenous taxa as well as other non-native species. Environmental heterogeneity may strongly influence the spatial distribution, habitat use and refuge availability for these taxa. Using a series of 24-h mesocosm experiments we examined the predator–prey interactions between an invasive crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) and four amphipod taxa, one indigenous (Gammarus pulex) and three non-native species (Crangonyx pseudogracilis, Dikerogammarus villosus and Gammarus tigrinus) to Great Britain. The potential mediating effect of physical habitat on predator–prey interactions was examined via the use of different substrate particle sizes; cobbles, gravels and, sand. Survivorship of amphipods in response to crayfish predation varied significantly with the highest rates recorded for the non-native species D. villosus, followed by G. tigrinus, and C. pseudogracilis, with the lowest survivorship recorded for the indigenous species G. pulex for all substrates except cobble. However, total biomass consumption of the indigenous G. pulex and the non-native D. villosus by P. leniusculus were similar suggesting that crayfish may have been satiated by larger D. villosus individuals. Substrate size had a significant influence on the predation success of P. leniusculus, with larger substrate clasts typically resulting in increased survivorship rates for all species except C. pseudogracilis, which displayed lower predation rates for sand substrates. The findings of this study highlight the risks that naïve indigenous taxa may face from new invasive species and the importance of characterising physical habitat (complexity and refugia potential) when considering the potential ecological effects of invaders on predation success.

History

School

  • Social Sciences and Humanities

Department

  • Geography and Environment

Published in

Biological Invasions

Volume

22

Issue

9

Pages

2713 - 2724

Publisher

Springer

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Rights holder

© The authors

Publisher statement

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Springer under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Acceptance date

2020-06-05

Publication date

2020-06-17

Copyright date

2020

ISSN

1387-3547

eISSN

1573-1464

Language

  • en

Depositor

Prof Paul Wood Deposit date: 4 August 2020