Abstract
Invasive alien species represent a serious threat to global biodiversity, causing considerable damage to native ecosystems. To better assess invasion risks, it is essential to better understand the biological processes that determine the success or failure of invasions. The catadromous Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis, whose native distribution is the Pacific Coast of China and Korea, has successfully invaded and established populations in North America and Europe. In Japan, where E. sinensis is also regarded as potentially invasive and multiple introduction vectors exist, the species is not yet established. These settings can be used to explore niche-based processes underlying the apparent failure of a biological invasion. We first quantified native and invasive realized niches of E. sinensis in freshwater habitats using geometrical n-dimensional hypervolumes. Based on the assumption of niche conservatism, we then projected habitat suitability of this species in Japan using species distribution models (SDMs) calibrated with distinct sets of distribution data: native occurrences, invasive occurrences, and both. Results showed that E. sinensis has undergone either niche shifts or niche contractions during invasions in different areas of the world. Projections from SDMs indicate that although part of Japan is suitable for E. sinensis, this does not include the freshwater habitats around the Ariake Sea, which is considered to be a suitable marine environment for E. sinensis larvae. The mismatch between suitable freshwater and marine environments provides a possible explanation for the failure of establishment of E. sinensis in Japan to date. Our findings have useful general implications for the interpretation of biological invasions.
Highlights
Biological invasions are regarded as a serious global environmental problem, with significant ecological, economic, and health-related consequences (Bellard et al, 2016; Ehrenfeld, 2010; Giakoumi et al, 2019; Morri et al, 2019; Pimentel et al, 2005; Simberloff et al, 2013)
Because of the lack of information about the distribution of E. sinensis larvae in marine environments, we focused on freshwater habitats as reported by Zhang et al (2019a)
The first four axes of the principal component analysis (PCA) of the seven selected predictors accounted for 90% of the total variance of the dataset, while variance contributed by other axes was relatively low
Summary
Biological invasions are regarded as a serious global environmental problem, with significant ecological, economic, and health-related consequences (Bellard et al, 2016; Ehrenfeld, 2010; Giakoumi et al, 2019; Morri et al, 2019; Pimentel et al, 2005; Simberloff et al, 2013). Numerous studies have shown that complete eradication of established invasive species is possible, it is often expensive and prone to failure (Genovesi, 2005; Hänfling et al, 2011; Zhan et al, 2015). Researchers are increasingly recognizing the significance of failed invasions for advancing our general understanding of invasion ecology. This includes, for instance, the identification of the factors that determine invasion failure and which could be of use for supporting management actions and for improving invasion risk assessments (Allen and Ramcharan, 2001; Brockerhoff and McLay, 2011; Marchetti et al, 2004; Zenni and Nuñez, 2013)
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