The Mixed Bag of Effects From Invasive Species

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Invasive Species Leave Behind Their Friends, Hindering Colonization

For invasive species leaving their home, they leave not only their predators but also the species that helped them thrive.

Arriving to a new range or location, invasive species lose not only their enemies but also their friends-those relationships that benefit colonization.

[...] "In this paper, we show that many introduced species leave not only their enemies but also their friends behind," says Prof. Angela Moles. "This might help to explain why so many invasions fail in their early stages-about 60% of introduced species fail to establish."

This is the first meta-study to quantitatively examine the "Missed Mutualist Hypothesis," the notion that invasive species leave behind their native mutualists-species whose relationships provide a net benefit to survival and reproduction. The Missed Mutualist Hypothesis is the overlooked parallel to the better tested and understood Enemy Release Hypothesis, which describes the advantage afforded to invasive species when they lose their native predators.

[...] By appreciating the Missed Mutualist Hypothesis, we can consider the species-species interactions of introduced populations, recognizing not only lost enemies but missed mutualists and thereby bolstering our biosecurity policy.

"For instance, the spread of introduced pines can be limited by a lack of fungi in the soil," says Prof. Moles. "Yet addition of fungi to help pine plantations grow is almost totally unmonitored worldwide.

More information: Angela T. Moles et al, Advancing the missed mutualist hypothesis, the under-appreciated twin of the enemy release hypothesis, Biology Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0220

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