Effective Control of Aquatic Invasive Species in Tropical Australia |
| |
Authors: | Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley Jeremy VanDerWal Damon Sydes |
| |
Institution: | (1) Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia;(2) School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia;(3) Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia;(4) Cassowary Coast Regional Council, PO Box 887, Innisfail, QLD, 4854, Australia |
| |
Abstract: | Often ecologists and natural resource managers can easily access data on invasive species occurrence across a region. Yet,
collecting species abundance data over a large area is arguably more important for decision making, but inherently costly,
so methods which can provide robust information at low-cost are particularly valuable. Studies of species distribution often
use occurrence data to build models of the environmental niche. Environmental suitability derived from such models may be
used to predict the potential distributions of species. The ability of such models to predict spatial patterns in abundance
have recently been demonstrated. Here we tested the relationship of environmental suitability with local abundance of an aquatic
invasive species, olive hymenachne (Hymenachne amplexicaulis) in the Wet Tropics of Australia. Ordinary least squares and quantile regressions revealed a positive relationship between
environmental suitability and local abundance of olive hymenachne. We expand on this and use the relationship between environmental
suitability and local abundance to quantify the effectiveness of management (reduction in local abundance) under four different
management investments. We show that the upper limit of abundance can be used to evaluate management effectiveness based on
varying investments, and that ongoing management is the most effective at reducing local abundance. We discuss implications
of this in addressing important problems in invasive species management. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 PubMed SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|