Rapid amphibian community recovery following removal of non-native fish from high mountain lakes
| Autor: | Quim Pou-Rovira, Teresa Buchaca, Alexandre Miró, David O'Brien, Marc Ventura, Federica Lucati, Víctor Osorio, Ibor Sabas, Jan Tomàs |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Habitat management
0106 biological sciences Calotriton asper Amphibian biology Ecology Alpine lakes 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Endangered species biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Colonisation Naturally fishless Non-native minnow Trout Overexploitation Invasive alien trout Restoration biology.animal Conservation status Species richness Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Nature and Landscape Conservation |
| Zdroj: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP) instacron:RCAAP Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC instname |
| Popis: | Este artículo contiene 8 páginas, 2 tablas, 3 figuras. Amphibians of high mountain lakes face many threats related to global change, including novel pathogens, development, climate change and overexploitation. However, the foremost threat is the presence of non-native fish. One of the objectives of the LIFE+ LIMNOPIRINEUS project (2014–2019) was the recovery of protected amphibian communities (including the endemic Calotriton asper) in eight naturally fishless Pyrenean high mountain lakes, by controlling or eradicating non-native trout or minnows. During the summer months of 2015 to 2019, we removed 95–100% of the fish present in these lakes, and monitored changes in their amphibian populations, as well as surveyed 56 nearby control lakes with or without fish. We found rapid natural recovery of amphibian communities as fish removal work progressed. The fish-removal lakes achieved typical richness figures for the area one year after fish removal began, and typical species abundances after three years (with the only exception of Rana temporaria). We documented a total of 16 colonisation events, all by amphibian species from the same valley. The two earliest colonisation events were observed in the year in which fish removal began, with eight events the following year. The lack of colonisation from nearby valleys in the study period highlights the crucial role of nearby residual populations not affected by human impacts. We show that whole amphibian communities from high mountain lakes recover rapidly after eliminating or reducing non-native fish, proving that this is a powerful tool to improve the conservation status of endangered amphibians. Economic support was provided by the European Commission LIFE + project LIMNOPIRINEUS (LIFE13 NAT/ES/001210), and by the Spanish Government projects FUNBIO (RTI2018-096217-B-I00) and BIOOCULT (2413/2017). |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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