Diet of invasive cats, rats and tegu lizards reveals impact over threatened species in a tropical island

Gaiotto, Juliana Vallim; Abrahão, Carlos Roberto; Dias, Ricardo Augusto; Bugoni, Leandro

doi:10.1016/j.pecon.2020.09.005

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Then, marine nutrients are only available after passing through lower trophic levels and decomposition along the trophic chain pathway (Anderson & Polis 1999;Caut et al 2012) and are thus less detectable upwards in the trophic chain. In contrast, rats are known for predating eggs and chicks (Hobson et al 1999;Stapp 2002;Tabak et al 2016), and the marine contribution assimilated in their tissues was clearly marked in our study, which confirms previous studies elsewhere (Polis & Hurd 1995) and on Fernando de Noronha (Gaiotto et al 2020) that rats directly explore marine nutrients by feeding at high trophic levels, such as seabird carcasses, chicks, eggs, and regurgitated fish. Thus, a high trophic level can result in high d 15 N values when marine nutrients are directly obtained.…”

Section: Vertical Dimensionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…2016), and the marine contribution assimilated in their tissues was clearly marked in our study, which confirms previous studies elsewhere (Polis & Hurd 1995) and on Fernando de Noronha (Gaiotto et al . 2020) that rats directly explore marine nutrients by feeding at high trophic levels, such as seabird carcasses, chicks, eggs, and regurgitated fish. Thus, a high trophic level can result in high δ 15 N values when marine nutrients are directly obtained.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissipation of seabird‐derived nutrients in a terrestrial insular trophic web

2022

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Highly mobile organisms can transport nutrients and energy among distinct ecosystems, such as between oceanic foraging areas and terrestrial breeding sites. Seabirds are great nutrient carriers and potentially play a key role in the maintenance of trophic webs on islands. In this study, we assessed three dimensions of marine nutrient dissipation-horizontal, temporal and vertical-on the tropical Meio Island of Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Brazil. For this, C 3 and C 4 plants, ants and spiders found in a 100 m long transect between colonies of masked (Sula dactylatra) and red-footed boobies (Sula sula) were sampled during the rainy (the masked booby breeding period) and dry seasons (the red-footed booby breeding period). The marine contribution to the terrestrial trophic web was analysed using Bayesian mixing models from a carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data set. The main findings indicate that marine nutrients in the terrestrial trophic web dissipated horizontally as the distance from the colony increased, which was more marked during the rainy season. On the vertical axis, the relative contribution of marine nutrients in terrestrial consumers was strongly related to food habits but not necessarily to the trophic level, dissipating rather than increasing, due to variable omnivory and the use of terrestrial food sources. The breeding strategy of the masked booby (i.e. incubating eggs on the ground), in addition to a larger body size and larger colony, could produce a more concentrated pulse of nutrients in comparison to seabirds nesting sparsely on trees, contributing more efficiently to the enrichment of marine nutrients on land. The importance of seabirds for the maintenance of interconnected ecosystems has been demonstrated, and the role of marine-derived nutrients in the enrichment of nutrient-poor tropical islands.

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Section: Vertical Dimensionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissipation of seabird‐derived nutrients in a terrestrial insular trophic web

2022

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“…Stable isotope analysis has been proven to be a useful tool in the field of invasion ecology (Vander Zanden et al 1999). It is often used to assess the impacts of introduced species on other taxa in term of predation (Haubrock et al 2019a;Gaiotto et al 2020;Oe et al 2020) and competition with native (Balzani et al 2016) and other alien species (Balzani et al 2020;Haubrock et al 2020a). Moreover, it can be used to reveal the role of new alien prey in the diet of resident predators (Juarez-Sanchez et al 2019;Stellati et al 2019), compare trophic levels between introduced and native populations of invasive species (Balzani et al 2021), as well as to disentangle trophic relationships among alien species in invaded communities (Haubrock et al 2019a;Bissattini et al 2021).…”

Section: General Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding the invasion toolbox: including stable isotope analysis in risk assessment

Balzani¹,

Haubrock²

2022

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Species introductions are a major concern for ecosystem functioning, socio-economic wealth, and human well-being. Preventing introductions proved to be the most effective management strategy, and various tools such as species distribution models and risk assessment protocols have been developed or applied to this purpose. These approaches use information on a species to predict its potential invasiveness and impact in the case of its introduction into a new area. At the same time, much biodiversity has been lost due to multiple drivers. Ways to determine the potential for successful reintroductions of once native but now extinct species as well as assisted migrations are yet missing. Stable isotope analyses are commonly used to reconstruct a species’ feeding ecology and trophic interactions within communities. Recently, this method has been used to predict potentially arising trophic interactions in the absence of the target species. Here we propose the implementation of stable isotope analysis as an approach for assessment schemes to increase the accuracy in predicting invader impacts as well as the success of reintroductions and assisted migrations. We review and discuss possibilities and limitations of this methods usage, suggesting promising and useful applications for scientists and managers.

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“…Norway rats Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout 1769), black rats Rattus rattus L., Pacific rats Rattus exulans (Peale 1848), and house mouse Mus musculus L. were unintentional transported on boats to most islands (Jones et al, 2013 ), causing devastating impacts on fauna and flora. These invaders compromise the stability of native populations by competition for resources, predation, and transmission of diseases (Courchamp et al, 2003 ; Gaiotto et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, rodents are the ones causing more damage to the natural patrimony of islands (Russell et al, 2018 ), leading to great economic losses (Doherty et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trust your guts? The effect of gut section on diet composition and impact of Mus musculus on islands using metabarcoding

Pinho

Lopes

Paupério

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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DNA metabarcoding is widely used to characterize the diet of species, and it becomes very relevant for biodiversity conservation, allowing the understanding of trophic chains and the impact of invasive species. The need for cost‐effective biodiversity monitoring methods fostered advances in this technique. One question that arises is which sample type provides a better diet representation. Therefore, with this study, we intended to evaluate if there were differences in diet estimates according to the section of the gastrointestinal tract analysed and which section(s) provided the best diet representation. Additionally, we intended to infer the ecological/economic impacts of an invader as a model of the potential effects in an originally mammal‐free ecosystem. We examined the gut contents of the house mouse Mus musculus introduced to Cabo Verde, considering three sections: stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. We applied a DNA‐metabarcoding approach using two genetic markers, one specific for plants and another for invertebrates. We showed that this invader consumed 131 taxa (73 plants and 58 invertebrates). We obtained significant differences in the composition of two of the three sections, with a higher incidence of invertebrates in the stomach and plants in the intestines. This may be due to stomach inhibitors acting on plants and/or to faster absorption of soft‐body invertebrates compared to the plant fibers in the intestines. We verified that the impact of this invader in the ecosystem is predominantly negative, as at least 50% of the ingested items were native, endemic, or economically important taxa, and only 19% of the diet items were exotics. Overall, results showed the need to analyse only two gastrointestinal tract sections to obtain robust diet data, increasing the cost‐effectiveness of the method. Furthermore, by uncovering the native taxa most frequently preyed on by mice, this DNA‐metabarcoding approach allowed us to evaluate efficiently which are at the highest risk.

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Diet of invasive cats, rats and tegu lizards reveals impact over threatened species in a tropical island

Cited by 15 publications

References 57 publications

Dissipation of seabird‐derived nutrients in a terrestrial insular trophic web

Dissipation of seabird‐derived nutrients in a terrestrial insular trophic web

Expanding the invasion toolbox: including stable isotope analysis in risk assessment

Trust your guts? The effect of gut section on diet composition and impact of Mus musculus on islands using metabarcoding

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Diet of invasive cats, rats and tegu lizards reveals impact over threatened species in a tropical island

Cited by 15 publications

References 57 publications

Dissipation of seabird‐derived nutrients in a terrestrial insular trophic web

Dissipation of seabird‐derived nutrients in a terrestrial insular trophic web

﻿Expanding the invasion toolbox: including stable isotope analysis in risk assessment

Trust your guts? The effect of gut section on diet composition and impact of Mus musculus on islands using metabarcoding

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Product

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Expanding the invasion toolbox: including stable isotope analysis in risk assessment