Abstract
Allee effects have been applied historically in efforts to understand the low-density population dynamics of rare and endangered species. Many biological invasions likewise experience the phenomenon of decreasing population growth rates at low population densities because most founding populations of introduced nonnative species occur at low densities. In range expansion of established species, the initial colonizers of habitat beyond the organism’s current range are usually at low density, and thus could be subject to Allee dynamics. There has been consistent empirical and theoretical evidence demonstrating, and in some cases quantifying, the role of Allee dynamics in the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), invasion of North America. In this review, we examine the potential causes of the Allee effect in the gypsy moth and highlight the importance of mate-finding failure as a primary mechanism behind an Allee effect, while the degree to which generalist predators induce an Allee effect remains unclear. We then explore the role of Allee effects in the establishment and spread dynamics of the gypsy moth system, which conceptually could serve as a model system for understanding how Allee effects manifest themselves in the dynamics of biological invasions.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Laura Blackburn for assistance in manuscript preparation, and Caz Taylor and Takehiko Yamanaka for their helpful comments. We also acknowledge funding from the National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Grants to O.N.B, A.M.L., and P.C.T. (2006), and D.M.J. (2006); EU Projects ALARM GOCE-CT-2003-506675 (FP6 Integrated Project, Assessing large-scale environmental risks with tested methods) and PRATIQUE KBBE-2007-212459 (FP7 Enhancements of Pest Risk Analysis Techniques) to C.R.; and a US Forest Service Research Joint Adventure Agreement to S.L.W. (2005).
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Tobin, P.C., Robinet, C., Johnson, D.M. et al. The role of Allee effects in gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), invasions. Popul Ecol 51, 373–384 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-009-0144-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-009-0144-6
Keywords
- Biological invasions
- Establishment
- Invasion dynamics
- Nonindigenous species
- Spread