Global warming confers performance advantages to a non-native predator

Anthropogenic impacts manifest in rising temperatures worldwide, with drastic consequences for communities and ecosystems. Ectotherms tend to reach a smaller size at maturity in warmer environments; however, whether these responses elicit performance advantages between native and invasive species remains poorly understood. Here, we compared foraging efficiency and growth of aquatic predators (invasive racer goby, Babka gymnotrachelus; native European bullhead, Cottus gobio) in current and predicted future water temperatures (15^ °C; 23 °^C) facing two types of prey: live and frozen gammarids (Gammarus jadzewskii). We show that the growth rate of both predators was negatively affected by a temperature increase, but was consistently higher for the invasive species compared to the native. This was driven by changes in predators’ foraging efficiency, increased in the invasive, and decreased in the native species. Fish foraging was also shaped by prey motility, with active prey consumed more..., Methods
Animal collecting and housing
We used the invasive racer goby and the native European bullhead as model organisms. Both species are shelter-associated bottom dwellers, with burst-and-hold swimming mode, feeding on a variety of macroinvertebrates (mostly insects, crustaceans) and co-existing in habitats with rocky and gravelly substrates (Kottelat and Freyhof 2007, Kakareko et al. 2016, Janáč et al. 2018, Teletchea and Beisel 2018, Płąchocki et al. 2020). Fish were collected in the summer (June) of 2024, from the Brda River (central Poland, 53° 08' 52.5\" N 17° 58' 10.5\" E) by diving, using an aquarium net. The fish were kept in the laboratory in single-species 120-L stock tanks, with a maximum density of 20 individuals per tank, and divided according to the experimental temperatures (i.e., two groups per species), ensuring a similar size range of individuals in both groups. Tanks were filled with conditioned tap water (mean ± SD: temperature 19.1 ± 0.4, pH 8.1 ± 0.2, electrical c..., # Data from: Global warming confers performance advantages to a non-native predator

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.h1893200d](10.5061/dryad.h1893200d)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data collected from the functional response experiment are stored in \"Global warming confers.xlsx\" file. The compressed .zip file also includes the code necessary to recreate all statistical analyses related to the study with R open software.

### Files and variables

#### File: Global_warming_confers_-_data_and_code.zip

**Description:** 

1\. \"Global warming confers.xlsx\" - the file contains data collected during the functional response experiments. Two sheets are included:

Sheet 1: \"Foraging efficiency data\" - this sheet contains raw data representing foraging efficiency of tested fish facing two experimental temperatures and two types of prey. Dataset was used to calculate total foraging efficiency and to assess functional response curves for predators tested. Variables:

id - unique fish...,