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Big Questions
The 32 questions from the brainstorming exercise. Comments from several people who could not be present are below.
Predictions
1. What is the relative importance of
exceptions/idiosyncracies in overall invasions?
2. Why does one population invade and another
not?
3. Can we predict problem invaders?
4. Can we predict the response of invaders to enemies
(loss and gain)? Can you predict the response of the community to
a new invader?
5. We need to develop a null model that "all"
invasions are stochastic and test specific variables against that
model.
6. Can we predict the response to selection of an
invading population to the selection regime and the invaded habitat by
taking classical quantitative genetic approach (e.g. Lande/Arnold
– measuring h2 and s)
Ecology/Evolution
7. Which species fail to invade, and how can we
actually find out?
8. How can we figure out the roles of in situ
evolution vs. preadaptation if we often don’t manage to identify the
sources of introduction? In what cases does a species need to
evolve to be a successful invader, and in what cases is that not
necessary?
9. What is the difference between introduced but not
invasive species, and invasive species?
10. Can we predict the effects of invasions on
different trophic levels (higher or lower) and how important are
demographic feedbacks on these impacts?
11. For species that modify the environment
(engineers), at what point do they stop?
12. How do different ecological interactions interact
in their effects on the demography of invaders? (direct vs. indirect
effects; relative importance of different types of interactions)
13. Can we characterize environmental context?/Impt.
of heterogeneity in the environment.
14. What is the role of genetic diversity (also
plasticity and epigenetics) invasive success? When does it
matter? How often is there outbreeding depression? Inbreeding
depression?
15. What is the role of phylogenetic relatedness in
invasions? (or ecological "nearest neighbors")
16. Are invasions of different taxa governed by the
same forces? (e.g. plants vs. animals)
17. What is the importance of propagule
pressure? Develop specific demographic and evolutionary models
that take into account admixture effects from single vs. multiple
sources.
18. What is the relative importance of population
growth (demography) vs. dispersal? Are they caused by the same
thing, and will they have similar consequences or different?
19. What are the relative roles of local adaptation,
transgenerational plasticity and polyploidy?
20. What is the relative importance of specific vs.
generalists enemies?
21. What are the relative roles of anthropogenic
change and biotic interactions?
22. What is going on in the lag phase?
Evolutionary, ecological, or both and what can we do about it?
23. Developing objective and repeatable metrics of
invasiveness.
24. Quantifying whether species are behaving
differently in their native and naturalized ranges – how frequently is
there a difference?
25. Understanding relative roles of evolution and
plasticity in invasion success
26. Understanding relative importance of different
characteristics/processes in effecting invasion success (e.g. how
important is biotic resistance relative to other processes?)
27. Developing a geographic database of invasion
success (e.g. how did sp. x respond in China, Australia, U.S.?)
28. Thinking through the approaches (experimental,
observational, paleontological) that would be valuable to employ –
understanding experimental controls for different types of
questions.
29. What are the characteristics of the source
habitats that give rise to invasive populations (what is the selection
regime that gives rise to invasive populations – is it a fluctuating
one?)
Management
30. What management techniques are effective?
31. How do we choose among BC agents?
32. What should we not do in invasion research?
(moving things around, creating hybrids)
From Hariet Hinz
Posted by hhinz at 2006-08-17 09:09
I came up with the following groupings:
1. Can we predict problem invaders? Or more general: can we predict whether a species becomes invasive or not?! (former question 3; this automatically also includes question 7, i.e. which species fail to invade and question 9. Question 15 would be a potential method)
2. Can we predict the effects of invasions on different trophic levels? (former question 10. this could also include former question 4)
3. Roles of in situ evolution vs. pre-adaptation (former question 8. I think therein we could also incorporate former questions 6, 14, 19, and 25)
4. Relative importance of different processes / mechanisms (former question 26. Could also incl. question 12 (in case I understood it correctly) and question 21). This is likely to change for each invasive species, but maybe it would be possible to come up with patterns for certain groups, e.g. plant functional groups, or plants vs. animals. In this respect also question 16. would fit in here. After all: the interaction between different mechanisms is the general theme of the RCN!
5. Quantify whether species are behaving differently in their native and naturalized ranges? (this is former question 24. Also question 29 would fit here)
Questions 5, 27 and 28 are rather methods that can be utilized to answer the above questions. I particularly like Q. 5
The answers would influence management strategies. So although important, I wasn't too sure where to put these.
That's all. Have a good meeting and also some fun! Cheers, Hariet.
CABI Centre Switzerland
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Evolution Symposium
From Ali Dunn
Sorry I am not in the room with you – darn security alerts. However, I have had a look at the (huge) list of questions. Here are my thoughts as to how I could contribute, what kinds of projects I would be interested in joining in and how I see some of these areas coming together. As I was not in the meeting, I hope this is the kind of feedback that will be useful.
Have a good meeting and I hope to meet many of you in the coming year Ali Dunn
The topics that leapt out at me were: 4. Can we predict the response of invaders to enemies (loss and gain)? Can you predict the response of the community to a new invader?
I think this is an interesting idea- though I am not sure how much generality their may turn out to be, I guess this depends on addressing Q 24 with respect to parasite host interactions
1. Can we predict the effects of invasions on different trophic levels (higher or lower) and how important are demographic feedbacks on these impacts?
This is moving in to invasion impacts at the community level & I am keen to find links with people interested in looking at parasites in this context- how parasites (introduced or acquired or indeed lost) mediate interactions between species at different trophic levels
1. How do different ecological interactions interact in their effects on the demography of invaders? (direct vs. indirect effects; relative importance of different types of interactions)
Again, one part of this is the effect of parasites (introduced/acquired/lost) on hosts directly (direct fitness effects, population size etc) and indirectly (how parsites change native/invader interactions)
1. What is the relative importance of specific vs. generalists enemies? This is of interest to me/my group/
2. Quantifying whether species are behaving differently in their native and naturalized ranges – how frequently is there a difference?
I see this as being strongly linked to 12 above and one part of it would be parasite/host interactions in native vs invasive ranges. This also feeds into question 4.
1. What is the role of genetic diversity (also plasticity and epigenetics) invasive success? When does it matter? How often is there outbreeding depression? Inbreeding depression?
This seems to link to q 24 and Q4 in that genetic diversity/bottlenecks could affect the resistance/susceptibility to parasitism of an invasive population compared with a native population.
In terms of actual projects. There is work ongoing in my group on Crustacean/parasite interactions in native and invasive ranges and in ER and I think some of these decapod & amphipod systems offer good models to look at the questions above. I am also keen to meet people who are interested in applying for funds for joint students/post docs. The situation in our lab is that we have good model systems in place, but are short of people power to address all the interesting questions. Specific links As well as building links with people in these conceptual areas, I am keen to talk to people with access to amphipod/decapod populations to discuss swapping samples and addressing some of these types of questions.