Invasive vegetation encroachment modulates dual threats faced by island-endemic scaly crickets
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Wilkins, V
Sharp, A
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The mechanisms by which non-native species impact island-endemic populations are varied and often convoluted. For effective invertebrate conservation where capacity is limited, it is vital to understand both direct and indirect species interactions. Those interactions define specific threats and therefore highlight possible solutions. We quantified several of the non-native species threats faced by an endemic scaly cricket, Discophallus ascension (family: Mogoplistidae), found on Ascension Island’s naturally barren coastlines. We hypothesized that encroaching non-native Mexican thorn Prosopis juliflora (1) directly reduced microclimate suitability, (2) indirectly increased resource competition with non-native species, and (3) indirectly increased non-native predation. Our aim was to assess how rapidly spreading Mexican thorn might reduce endemic cricket populations. Lab trials first confirmed the temperature and diet preferences of D. ascension. Mexican thorn significantly increased ground-level temperature but not above the estimated optimum for D. ascension within key habitat. Observed interspecific resource competition was significantly greater in habitat degraded by Mexican thorn and was driven by non-native ants, house crickets Gryllodes sigillatus and cockroaches Periplaneta americana. Recorded cricket predation was almost entirely by non-native rats Rattus rattus in barren habitat but primarily by ants in Mexican thorn habitat. Threats to D. ascension were therefore modulated by invasive vegetation, but driven by non-native insects and rats at all sites. We conclude that removal of vegetation alone is likely to reduce resource competition but not predation. Managing multiple invasive species is likely necessary for successful species conservation.
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Biological Invasions
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26
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9
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© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Zoology
Ecology
Biological sciences
Environmental sciences
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Chin, WY; Wilkins, V; Sharp, A, Invasive vegetation encroachment modulates dual threats faced by island-endemic scaly crickets, Biological Invasions, 2024, 26 (9), pp. 2941-2954