Abstract
The aim is to study how native predators affect species invasions and how this resistance change over time. Initially, invasive species may reach very high population densities, but many invasive populations decline drastically after some time. One explanation for this is that native predators adapt to changes at the food base and start to consume the new resource. Timing and extent of this predator adaptation may be one of the key factors that govern spread, population dynamics and the magnitude of negative ecological effects of invasive species. Despite this, little is known about how native predators interact with invasive biota. I will study how different guilds (generalists/specialists) and taxa of native predators adapt to invasive mollusks over different timescales (short-term learning, longer-term learning and longer-time evolutionary adaptation).This is done in aquaria and field enclosures in NE USA where 13 aquatic mollusks have invaded over different time-scales and many different predators are present. The mollusk invaders have well-known distributions, which allow predators to be caught that are naive, previously exposed or that have coevolved with an invasive mollusk in a certain area. This research will substantially increase our understanding of the processes that underlie species invasions and, provide important clues to how species invasions can be managed in a sustainable way.
Sweden