﻿Cost-benefit evaluation of management strategies for an invasive amphibian with a stage-structured model

Cang Hui,John Measey,Sarah J Davies,Giovanni Vimercati

doi:10.3897/neobiota.70.72508

Abstract

Management strategies for invasive populations should be designed to maximise efficacy and efficiency, i.e. to accomplish their goals while operating with the least resource consumption. This optimisation is often difficult to achieve in stage-structured populations, because costs, benefits and feasibility of removing individuals may vary with stage. We use a spatially-explicit stage-structured model to assess efficacy of past, present and alternative control strategies for invasive guttural toads, Sclerophrys gutturalis, in Cape Town. The strategies involve removal of variable proportions of individuals at different life-history stages and spatial scales. We also quantify the time necessary to implement each strategy as a proxy of financial resources and we correct strategy outcomes by implementation of time to estimate efficiency. We found that the strategy initially pursued in Cape Town, which did not target any specific stage, was less efficient than the present strategy, which prioritises adult removal. The initial strategy was particularly inefficient because it did not reduce the population size despite allocating consistent resources to remove eggs and tadpoles. We also found that such removal might be detrimental when applied at high levels. This counter-intuitive outcome is due to the ‘hydra effect’: an undesired increase in population size caused by removing individuals before overcompensatory density dependence. Strategies that exclusively remove adults ensure much greater management efficiency than those that also remove eggs and tadpoles. Available management resources should rather be allocated to increase the proportion of adult guttural toads that are removed or the spatial extent at which this removal is pursued.

Highlights

Management strategies for invasive populations often aim to eradicate or control the number of invasive individuals in order to minimise their impacts on native species, ecosystems and human activities (Bomford and O’Brien 1995; Robertson et al 2020)
The removal of most adult toads (80%) from accessible ponds (“adult removal” strategy) currently pursued in Cape Town is as effective as the initial strategy (Table 3, Fig. 1), in which adult removal was extended by an additional removal of juveniles, metamorphs, tadpoles and eggs (Table 3, Fig. 1, Suppl. material 2)
We found that the efficiency of the initial strategy adopted in Cape Town to control the guttural toad was impaired by the removal of eggs and tadpoles; their removal did not noticeably affect the population demography (Fig. 1), but rather subtracted resources from other modes of removal

Summary

Introduction

Management strategies for invasive populations often aim to eradicate or control the number of invasive individuals in order to minimise their impacts on native species, ecosystems and human activities (Bomford and O’Brien 1995; Robertson et al 2020). These strategies should be designed to maximise both efficacy and efficiency, i.e. to fully accomplish their intended goals while functioning with the least expenditure of resources (Blackwood et al 2010; Epanchin-Niell and Hastings 2010; Bonneau et al 2017; Nishimoto et al 2021). Adult and juvenile stages may be characterised by contrasting behavioural and dispersal capabilities (Govindarajulu et al 2005; Jongejans et al 2008; Vimercati et al 2021) or size and physiology (Beaty and Salice 2013; Green et al 2014)

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Discussion

Conclusion