Journal article
Contrasting patterns from two invasion fronts suggest a niche shift of an invasive predator of native bees
- Abstract:
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Background
The accuracy of predictions of invasive species ranges is dependent on niche similarity between invasive and native populations and on our ability to identify the niche characteristics. With this work we aimed to compare the niche dynamics of two genetically related invasive populations of Vespa velutina (an effective predator of honeybees and wild pollinators), in two distinct climatic regions, one in central Europe and another one in the north-western Iberian Peninsula, and hence to identify uninvaded regions susceptible to invasion.
Methods
Niche dynamics and shifts of V. velutina were assessed by comparing the environmental niches of the native and of the two invasive populations, using climatic, topographic and land use variables. We also ran reciprocal distribution models using different algorithms and records from both native and invasive ranges to compare model predictions and estimate which regions are at a greater risk of being invaded.
Results
An apparent niche shift was detected in the population of the NW of Iberian Peninsula, where the species is living under environmental conditions different from the native niche. In central Europe, large suitable areas remain unoccupied. The fact that both invasive populations are well established, despite occupying environmentally distinct regions indicates that V. velutina has a high ability to successfully invade different environmental envelopes from those existing in its native range. For example, in north-western Iberian Peninsula the species is now thriving out of its native niche limits. Moreover, the large extent of still unoccupied environmental space with similar conditions to those used by the species in its native range suggests that there is still a large area of central and eastern Europe that can be potentially invaded by the species.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 650.6KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.7717/peerj.13269
Authors
+ Natural Environment Research Council
More from this funder
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/02b5d8509
- Grant:
- NE/T011084/1
- Publisher:
- PeerJ
- Journal:
- PeerJ More from this journal
- Volume:
- 10
- Article number:
- e13269
- Place of publication:
- United States
- Publication date:
- 2022-05-10
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-03-23
- DOI:
- ISSN:
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2167-8359
- Pmid:
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35573178
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1261634
- Local pid:
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pubs:1261634
- Deposit date:
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2025-02-07
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Verdasca et al
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © 2022 Verdasca et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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