Rapidly changing life history during invasion

Abstract

The fish species vendace (Coregonus albula) invaded the sub-arctic Pasvik watercourse during the second half of the 1980s, and became the dominant pelagic species in the upstream part of the watercourse within a few years. Life history traits of the pioneer population of vendace in Pasvik were recorded from 1991-2000. A rapid increase in population density in the upstream part of the watercourse was accompanied by decreased growth rates, decreased fecundity and a reduced size at first maturation. The downstream part of the watercourse showed a similar, but delayed, change in life history traits compared to the upstream part. The study documents great life history variability of a non-native fish species entering a new environment. We discuss two co-acting explanations for the observed patterns: (i) a density dependent response mediated by food depletion; and (ii) a pioneer strategy that allocates resources to favour reproduction at early developmental stages with a high number of offspring, trading off growth and size of offspring.