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What determines the impact of alien birds and mammals in Europe?

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Abstract

An often-cited reason for studying the process of invasion by alien species is that the understanding sought can be used to mitigate the impacts of the invaders. Here, we present an analysis of the correlates of local impacts of established alien bird and mammal species in Europe, using a recently described metric to quantify impact. Large-bodied, habitat generalist bird and mammal species that are widespread in their native range, have the greatest impacts in their alien European ranges, supporting our hypothesis that surrogates for the breadth and the amount of resources a species uses are good indicators of its impact. However, not all surrogates are equally suitable. Impacts are generally greater for mammal species giving birth to larger litters, but in contrast are greater for bird species laying smaller clutches. There is no effect of diet breadth on impacts in birds or mammals. On average, mammals have higher impacts than birds. However, the relationships between impact and several traits show common slopes for birds and mammals, and relationships between impact and body mass and latitude do not differ between birds and mammals. These results may help to anticipate which species would have large impacts if introduced, and so direct efforts to prevent such introductions.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Anne Kempel and Mark van Kleunen for co-organising the workshop on “Biological Invasions—Towards general rules across taxa” that initiated this collaboration, and the Inter-University Doctoral Program in Ecology and Evolution (Lausanne) for the sponsorship that enabled us to attend. The comments of three anonymous referees greatly improved this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Sabrina Kumschick

  2. Department of Botany and Zoology, Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, South Africa

    Sabrina Kumschick

  3. Unit Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 10, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Sven Bacher

  4. Institute of Zoology, ZSL, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4RY, UK

    Tim M. Blackburn

  5. Distinguished Scientist Fellowship Program, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 1145, Saudi Arabia

    Tim M. Blackburn

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  1. Sabrina Kumschick
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Correspondence to Sven Bacher.

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Kumschick, S., Bacher, S. & Blackburn, T.M. What determines the impact of alien birds and mammals in Europe?. Biol Invasions 15, 785–797 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-012-0326-6

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