Abstract
Boom-bust population dynamics are long-recognized phenomena during species invasions, but few studies documented impacts of these dynamic changes. The Florida Everglades is the largest wetland in the United States, is undergoing a multi-decade hydro-restoration effort, and has been invaded by several tropical freshwater fishes. We used a 26-year dataset of small native marsh fishes and decapods to assess potential effects of African Jewelfish (Hemichromis letourneuxi) invasion and compared their effects to those of a more recently invading species, Asian Swamp Eels (Monopterus albus/javanensis), and a long-established non-native species, Mayan Cichlids (Mayaheros urophthalmus). Unlike boom-bust dynamics of jewelfish, swamp eel abundance increased and stabilized over the course of this study. After accounting for effects of hydrologic variation, the densities of several native species were more reduced by either jewelfish or swamp eels than by native fish predators, while effects of Mayan Cichlids were similar to those of native fish predators. Impacts of the jewelfish boom in Shark River Slough were smaller (density reductions ≤ 50%) and more temporally limited than those of swamp eels, which produced near-complete loss of four species in Taylor Slough. Following the jewelfish bust, the density of affected species approximated pre-invasion predictions based on hydrology, but their recovery is now threatened by the subsequent invasion of swamp eels in Shark River Slough. Long-term monitoring data provide opportunities to probe for population-level effects at field scales, and indicate that impacts of non-native species can be context-dependent and vary across ecosystems and temporal scales.
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Data availability
Data are archived on the FIU Florida Coastal Everglades LTER website through the Environmental Data Initiative (https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/b5038017157f91ef92ff495dde6122b0).
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Acknowledgements
We thank the many technicians that have worked to collect and process the samples over the years. We also thank William F. Loftus, NPS and USGS (retired), and David Sikkema, NPS (retired), for supporting establishment and continuation of this long-term monitoring program. Collections were made most recently made under permits EVER-2022-SCI-0045 from Everglades National Park and S-22-01 from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Florida International University’s IACUC committee most recently approved this work under #IACUC-22-047. This is contribution number 1599 from the Institute of Environment at Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA.
Funding
Data collection was supported by the Modified Water Deliveries project through a series of task agreements between Everglades National Park and Florida International University culminating in P21AC10856 under the South Florida and Caribbean Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit cooperative agreement P18AC00974, the Critical Ecosystem Studies Initiative and Everglades National Park base funding. This paper was developed in collaboration with the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under National Science Foundation grants nos. DEB-1237517 and DEB-2025954.
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NJD, JLK, and JCT managed the project and data collection. MRP analyzed the data with input from NJD, JCT, and JLK. MRP led the writing of the manuscript and all authors contributed to revisions.
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Pintar, M.R., Dorn, N.J., Kline, J.L. et al. Contrasting invasion histories and effects of three non-native fishes observed with long-term monitoring data. Biol Invasions 25, 3887–3903 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-023-03146-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-023-03146-9