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Release from intraspecific competition promotes dominance of a non-native invader

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Abstract

Species can coexist through equalizing (similar fitness abilities) and stabilizing (unique niche requirements) mechanisms—assuming that intraspecific competition imposes more limitation than interspecific competition. Non-native species often de-stabilize coexistence, suggesting that they bring either a fitness advantage or a distinct niche requirement. We tested whether greater fitness or unique niche requirements best explained a successful North American invasion by the European Myrmica rubra ant. North American invaded-range M. rubra aggressively sting and occur in enormous numbers (suggesting a fitness advantage), yet our study site has a history of anthropogenic disturbance that might favor M. rubra (suggesting a unique niche). We compared M. rubra to native ants, principally the dominant North American woodland ant Aphaenogaster picea, using physiological health (lipids and size), monthly bait station surveys and aggression assays to assess fitness abilities, and we used nest surveys and isotope analysis to assess niche characteristics. We confirmed the field observations with laboratory experiments that tested colony aggression (direct competition) and food retrieval (indirect competition). In both the observational and experimental investigations, we found little evidence of M. rubra interspecific competitive advantage (aggression or food retrieval) or niche differentiation. Instead, M. rubra violated the basic assumption of coexistence theory: intraspecific competition consistently was less than interspecific competition. Freed up from the costs and limitations of territorial competition, some non-native species may outcompete native species by not competing with themselves. This ‘friendly release’ from intraspecific competition provides an ecological mechanism for some successful invasions.

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Acknowledgements

Support for this research was provided by the SUNY Buffalo State Office of Undergraduate Research. The authors would like to thank Zandra Wills, Nalah Joseph, Kazz Archibald, Connor Blizzard, Mike Olejniczak, Rabiyah Irfan, Rhudwan Nihlawi and Sonya Bayba for field and laboratory assistance. We also are grateful to Don Brasure and Wayne Gall for collecting data on Tifft ants in the 1990s. We thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript. The authors also thank the Buffalo Museum of Science and Tifft Nature Preserve for permission to conduct field research.

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  1. SUNY Buffalo State, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY, 14222, USA

    Robert J. Warren II, Katelyn Reed, Abby Mathew, Kevin Krupp, Madeson Goodman & Kazz Archibald

  2. Museum of Science – Tifft Nature Preserve, 1200 Fuhrmann Boulevard, Buffalo, NY, 14203, USA

    David J. Spiering

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  1. Robert J. Warren II
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Contributions

RW conceived the ideas and designed methodology; KR, AM, KK and MG collected the data; RW and DS supervised data collection. RW led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Robert J. Warren II.

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The data generated and analyzed for the current study are available in the SUNY Buffalo State Digital Commons [http://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/biology_data/4].

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Warren, R.J., Reed, K., Mathew, A. et al. Release from intraspecific competition promotes dominance of a non-native invader. Biol Invasions 21, 895–909 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1868-z

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