Environmental change that disrupts communication during mate choice and alters sexual selection could influence population dynamics. Yet little is known about such long-term effects. We investigated experimentally the consequences that disrupted visual communication during mate choice has for the quantity and viability of offspring produced in a threespine stickleback population (Gasterosteus aculeatus). We further related the results to long term monitoring of population dynamics in the field to determine if changes are apparent under natural conditions. The results show that impaired visual communication because of algal blooms reduces reliability of male visual signals as indicators of offspring survival during their first weeks of life. This relaxes sexual selection but has no effect on the number of offspring hatching, as most males have a high hatching success in turbid water. Despite eutrophication and high turbidity levels that interfere with communication during mate choice, the population has grown during recent decades. Large numbers of offspring hatching, combined with high variation in juvenile fitness, has probably shifted selection to later life history stages and maintained a viable population. Together with reduced cost of sexual selection and ongoing ecosystem changes caused by human activities, this could have promoted population growth. These results point to the complexity of ecosystems and the necessity to consider all influencing factors when attempting to understand impacts of human activities on populations.

Alien species are altering ecosystems around the globe. To predict and manage their impacts, the underlying mechanisms need to be understood. This is challenging in ecosystems undergoing multiple disturbances as unexpected interactions can alter the impact of individual disturbances. Such interactions are likely to be common in disturbed ecosystems, but have so far received little attention. We investigated whether interactions between an invading shrimp Palaemon elegans and another human‐induced disturbance, the population growth of a native mesopredator, the threespine stickleback, influences a third human‐induced disturbance, the increase in biomass of filamentous algae. Increases in both the native mesopredator population and algal biomass have been promoted by eutrophication and a trophic cascade triggered by declining predatory fish stocks. We used mesocosm and field enclosure experiments, combined with analyses of long‐term trends in the abundance of the invader and the native mesopredator, to dissect the influence of the two species on algal biomass when alone and when co‐occurring. The impact of the invader on algal biomass depended on the native mesopredator; shrimp on their own had no effect on algal growth, but mitigated algae accumulation when competing with the stickleback for resources. Competition caused the shrimp to shift its diet from grazers to algae, and its habitat choice from open to vegetated habitats. The native mesopredator, in contrast, increased algal biomass irrespective of the presence of the invader, by preying on grazers and inducing a trophic cascade. Our results show that the presence of a native mesopredator causes an invader to alter its behaviour and thereby its ecological impact. This demonstrates that interactions between invaders and other anthropogenic disturbances can alter the ecological impact of invaders, and, notably, that the impact of invaders can be positive and stabilize disturbed ecosystems. These results stress the importance of considering interactions among disturbances when investigating the ecological impact of alien species. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13078/suppinfo is available for this article.

Environmental change that disrupts communication during mate choice and alters sexual selection could influence population dynamics. Yet little is known about such long-term effects. We investigated experimentally the consequences that disrupted visual communication during mate choice has for the quantity and viability of offspring produced in a threespine stickleback population (Gasterosteus aculeatus). We further related the results to long term monitoring of population dynamics in the field to determine if changes are apparent under natural conditions. The results show that impaired visual communication because of algal blooms reduces reliability of male visual signals as indicators of offspring survival during their first weeks of life. This relaxes sexual selection but has no effect on the number of offspring hatching, as most males have a high hatching success in turbid water. Despite eutrophication and high turbidity levels that interfere with communication during mate choice, the population has grown during recent decades. Large numbers of offspring hatching, combined with high variation in juvenile fitness, has probably shifted selection to later life history stages and maintained a viable population. Together with reduced cost of sexual selection and ongoing ecosystem changes caused by human activities, this could have promoted population growth. These results point to the complexity of ecosystems and the necessity to consider all influencing factors when attempting to understand impacts of human activities on populations.