Behavioural variability within invasive populations and its consequences on ecosystem functioning
Within populations, individuals differ in many phenotypic traits. While the eco-evolutionary importance of intraspecific variability is now clearly recognised, our knowledge on its potential role in mediating the ecological impacts of invasive species at the higher levels of biological organisation remains limited. This is particularly important because natural and human-induced processes can generate phenotypically biased populations during the invasion process. Using two non-native model species, the red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) and the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and a combination of experimental approaches, we quantified how changes in the behavioural structure of invasive populations affect their potential ecological impacts. Overall, our results demonstrated that modifications in the behavioural composition of invasive populations could modify community structure and ecosystem functioning and the fundamental and management implications of these findings will be discussed.
Host: Gregor Kalinkat