Native predators and exotic prey - An acquired taste?

Abstract

Only a small proportion of exotic species invasions give rise to hyper-successful nuisance species, but those that do have dramatic negative impacts on ecosystems, such as the displacement of native species and disruption of native food webs. For a native predator, such changes may mean a major transformation in its resource base and a decline in its fitness. However, native predators may adapt to become more effective at feeding on exotic prey, either rapidly, via existing phenotypic plasticity, or more slowly, via natural selection. Despite a rapidly growing number of publications on the importance of species invasions as a driver of contemporary evolution in both invading and native species, we know little about how the arrival of exotic prey affects native predators. We propose that native predators could be important in regulating the long-term dynamics of invading species and, consequently, that the overexploitation of predators could facilitate biological invasions. © The Ecological Society of America.