IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v220y2009i8p1098-1104.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intraguild predation and mesopredator release effect on long-lived prey

Author

Listed:
  • Russell, James C.
  • Lecomte, Vincent
  • Dumont, Yves
  • Le Corre, Matthieu

Abstract

Complete extirpation of a species can generate cascading effects throughout an ecosystem, yet are precisely the goal of island eradications of pest species. “Mesopredator release effect”, an asymmetrical special case of intraguild predation, has been hypothesised as a possible indirect effect from eradications, where superpredator removal can generate a mesopredator increase which may increase the impact on their shared prey. Theoretically this suggests that for intraguild predators, the superpredator may protect the shared prey from mesopredation, and removal of superpredators alone is not recommended. We create a model of long-lived age-structured shared prey and explore the non-equilibrium dynamics of this system. The superpredator can impact all prey life-stages (adult survival and reproductive success) whereas the smaller mesopredator can only impact early life-stages (reproductive success). This model is independently tested with data from a closed oceanic island system where eradication of introduced intraguild predators is possible for conservation of threatened birds. Mesopredator release only occurs in strongly top-down moderated (resource-abundant) systems. Even when mesopredator release can occur, the negative impact of more mesopredators is outweighed by the benefit of superpredator removal, allowing recovery of the prey population. Results are robust to 10% variation in model parameters. The consideration of age-structured prey contradicts previous theoretical results for mesopredator release effect and intraguild predation. Superpredator eradication is vital for population recovery of long-lived insular species. Nonetheless island conservation must retain a whole-ecosystem perspective given the complex trophic relationships among multiple species on islands.

Suggested Citation

  • Russell, James C. & Lecomte, Vincent & Dumont, Yves & Le Corre, Matthieu, 2009. "Intraguild predation and mesopredator release effect on long-lived prey," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(8), pages 1098-1104.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:220:y:2009:i:8:p:1098-1104
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.01.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380009000714
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.01.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthieu Le Corre, 2008. "Cats, rats and seabirds," Nature, Nature, vol. 451(7175), pages 134-135, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schippers, Peter & Stienen, Eric W.M. & Schotman, Alex G.M. & Snep, Robbert P.H. & Slim, Pieter A., 2011. "The consequences of being colonial: Allee effects in metapopulations of seabirds," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(17), pages 3061-3070.
    2. Colomer, M. Àngels & Margalida, Antoni & Sanuy, Delfí & Pérez-Jiménez, Mario J., 2011. "A bio-inspired computing model as a new tool for modeling ecosystems: The avian scavengers as a case study," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(1), pages 33-47.
    3. Faria, Lucas Del Bianco & Costa, Michel Iskin da S. & Godoy, Wesley A. Conde, 2011. "A model for intraguild predation dynamics between immature stages," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(17), pages 3295-3299.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Keywords

      Cats; Eradication; Island; Rats; Seabird;
      All these keywords.

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:220:y:2009:i:8:p:1098-1104. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.