On the importance of life history and age structure in biological invasions
Author
Summary, in English
The age specific patterns of reproduction and mortality dictated by the life history of an organism apply to potential invaders as well as resident species of an area, but whether certain life history traits are more invasive than others is an unresolved issue. We analyze a two-population system of an invading and a resident species and test the effects of age on the probability to invade when the organisms are iteroparous or semelparous. The life history characteristics of the populations are projected in Leslie matrices, and the probability that the invader exceeds different population sizes is calculated by Monte Carlo analysis. The simulations show that (a) the invasion probability of an iteroparous organism increases with age until the individuals introduced are mature for first reproduction, and then becomes independent of age; (b) the invasion probability is more age sensitive for iteroparous organisms with high juvenile mortality (Type III organisms) than for those with a lower (Type I); (c) invading semelparous organisms are most affected by competition from resident organisms; (d) variations in vital rates of semelparous residents have greater influence on the invasion probability of an iteroparous organism than variations in traits of the invader. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Department/s
Publishing year
2011
Language
English
Pages
485-492
Publication/Series
Ecological Modelling
Volume
222
Issue
3
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Ecology
Keywords
- Invasion
- Life history
- Age structure
- Semelparous
- Iteroparous
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0304-3800