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| Figure 1: Study site. Guam, the southernmost island in the Mariana Islands, is home to the invasive brown treesnake and thus virtually all forested lands are bird-free, whereas the nearby islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota are snake-free, and have relatively healthy bird communities. On islands with birds, the primary frugivores (from left to right) for two tree species whose fruits are depicted in the middle, Psychotria mariana (left) and Premna serratifolia (right), include the bridled white-eye (Zosterops conspicillatus), and Rota bridled white-eye (Zosterops rotensis; both Zosterops species represented by the bridled white eye in the figure), Mariana crow (Corvus kubaryi), Micronesian starling (Aplonis opaca), white-throated ground dove (Gallicolumba xanthonura; Premna only), Mariana fruit dove (Ptilinopus roseicapilla) and golden white-eye (Cleptornis marchei). As a result of the snake, Psychotria mariana and Premna serratifolia on Guam have functionally lost all of their seed dispersing partners (note that the Rota bridled white-eye and the golden white-eye were not on Guam before the snake introduction). |
Abstract
Invasive vertebrate predators are directly responsible for the extinction or decline of many vertebrate species, but their indirect impacts often go unmeasured, potentially leading to an underestimation of their full impact. When invasives extirpate functionally important mutualists, dependent species are likely to be affected as well. Here, we show that the invasive brown treesnake [Boiga irregularis], directly responsible for the extirpation of forest birds from the island of Guam, is also indirectly responsible for a severe decline in plant recruitment as a result of disrupting the fruit-frugivore mutualism. To assess the impact of frugivore loss on plants, we compare seed dispersal and recruitment of two fleshy-fruited tree species on Guam and three nearby islands with intact disperser communities. We conservatively estimate that the loss of frugivorous birds caused by the brown treesnake may have caused a 61–92% decline in seedling recruitment. This case study highlights the potential for predator invasions to cause indirect, pervasive and easily overlooked interaction cascades.
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| Figure 1: Study site. Guam, the southernmost island in the Mariana Islands, is home to the invasive brown treesnake and thus virtually all forested lands are bird-free, whereas the nearby islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota are snake-free, and have relatively healthy bird communities. On islands with birds, the primary frugivores (from left to right) for two tree species whose fruits are depicted in the middle, Psychotria mariana (left) and Premna serratifolia (right), include the bridled white-eye (Zosterops conspicillatus), and Rota bridled white-eye (Zosterops rotensis; both Zosterops species represented by the bridled white eye in the figure), Mariana crow (Corvus kubaryi), Micronesian starling (Aplonis opaca), white-throated ground dove (Gallicolumba xanthonura; Premna only), Mariana fruit dove (Ptilinopus roseicapilla) and golden white-eye (Cleptornis marchei). As a result of the snake, Psychotria mariana and Premna serratifolia on Guam have functionally lost all of their seed dispersing partners (note that the Rota bridled white-eye and the golden white-eye were not on Guam before the snake introduction).
Latitude and longitude are in degrees north and east, respectively. Snake photograph and bird illustrations used with permission. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14557
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Haldre S. Rogers, Eric R. Buhle, Janneke HilleRisLambers, Evan C. Fricke, Ross H. Miller and Joshua J. Tewksbury. 2017. Effects of An Invasive Predator Cascade to Plants Via Mutualism Disruption.
Nature Communications. 8, 14557. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14557
