Summary1. The introduction of exotic species to new areas poses a major threat to the environment. For those introduced species that establish and survive beyond the short term, the opportunities to manage the risk of continuing spread often rest with limiting reproductive output. The introduced northern Pacific seastar Asterias amurensis is an ecologically important pest that has established in the Derwent Estuary (Australia). Driven by oversupply of bivalve prey, it is persistent, abundant and fecund when associated with man-made structures such as docks, marinas, jetties and piers, that is, 'wharves'. 2. As a free-spawning invertebrate, fertilization by A. amurensis is a critical life-history stage constrained by strong Allee effects. Eggs must be released in close proximity to sperm sources because the chances of achieving fertilization drastically reduce with increasing distances of spawner separation. 3. Investigation of zygote production in the Derwent Estuary using a spatially explicit model of free-spawning fertilization shows that A. amurensis at wharves, while representing <10% of the total population in the estuary and concentrated in <0AE1% of the total area, may contribute >90% of total zygote production. Given the seastars' long-lived and highly dispersive larvae, we show that wharves not only represent important sites of invasion but also facilitate propagule pressure promoting secondary invasions. 4. Synthesis and applications. In the absence of effective pest control solutions, focusing on reproductive hotspots has the potential to reduce further spread of established marine pests and to alleviate ongoing ecological impacts. In the case of the northern Pacific seastar, elimination of highly localized wharf populations annually prior to spawning can reduce overall zygote production by up to estimated $90%. The long-term protection of key sources of larval production is a common goal for marine reserve design and fisheries management. However, the same concept but in reverse, whereby larval production is minimized at key sources, could be effective in the management of introduced pests in subtidal marine environments.

Hibernation is a remarkable behaviour deployed by a diverse array of endotherms within many clades that greatly reduces metabolic need, but also has somatic costs. Hibernation in modern endotherms is often assumed to be an adaptation allowing animals to avoid extreme thermal conditions or food shortages in seasonal environments. However, many animals hibernate when foraging conditions are energetically profitable, suggesting other causal factors influence hibernation behaviour. Understanding the selection pressures responsible for intraspecific variation in the timing and duration of hibernation can help elucidate the relative evolutionary influences of the ultimate ecological causes of hibernation. We tested four previously proposed mechanistic hypotheses to explain intraspecific variation in hibernation phenology in the federally threatened northern Idaho ground squirrel (Urocitellus brunneus): (1) thermal tolerance, (2) food limitation, (3) predation avoidance and (4) sexual selection. The predation avoidance and sexual selection hypotheses received the most support, although we also found some support for the thermal tolerance and food limitation hypotheses. Heavy squirrels increased hibernation duration regardless of environmental conditions, as predicted solely by the predation avoidance hypothesis. Reproductive males emerged from hibernation earlier in spring than other sex–age classes, a pattern predicted by the sexual selection hypothesis. Temperature and food availability explained a much smaller amount of the variation in hibernation behaviour, only partially supporting predictions of the thermal tolerance and food limitation hypotheses. Our results indicate that animals navigate life‐history trade‐offs between energetic allocation to survival and reproduction via state‐dependent optimization of hibernation phenology. Consequently, any future environmental changes that influence body condition will have implications for population ecology and life‐history evolution of hibernating animals due to stark differences in daily survival probability between hibernation and the active season. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.