Ecological effects of invasive alien species on native communities,with particular emphasis on the interactions between aphids and ladybirds |
| |
Authors: | Pavel Kindlmann Olga M C C Ameixa Antony F G Dixon |
| |
Institution: | 1.Department of Biodiversity Research,Global Change Research Centre AS CR, Na sádkách 7,?eské Budějovice,Czech Republic;2.Institute for Environmental Studies,Charles University,Prague,Czech Republic;3.Faculty of Sciences,University of South Bohemia,?eské Budějovice,Czech Republic;4.School of Biological Sciences,University of East Anglia,Norwich,UK |
| |
Abstract: | The ecological effects of introduced species on native organisms can sometimes, but not always be significant. The risks associated
with invasive alien pests are difficult to quantify. This paper concentrates on the ecological effects of invasive insect
predators that feed on pest insects, because the former may potentially affect the biological control of the latter. The literature
indicates that invasive predatory insects generally are resistant to changes in environmental conditions, long-lived and voracious
with a high reproductive rate, high dispersal ability, able to spread very rapidly across landscapes and exhibit phenotypic
plasticity. Their colonization of patches of prey may induce native predators to leave, but the evidence that invaders negatively
affect the abundance of the native species is scarce and not persuasive. Insect predators do not substantially affect the
abundance of their prey, if the ratio of generation time of the predator to that of the prey is large (the generation time
ratio hypothesis), therefore the effect of an invasion by long-lived alien predators on systems consisting of long-lived native
predators and short-lived prey on the abundance of the prey is hard to detect. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|