Differential population responses of native and alien rodents to an invasive predator, habitat alteration, and plant masting

Invasive species and anthropogenic habitat alteration are major drivers of biodiversity loss. When multiple invasive species occupy different trophic levels, removing an invasive predator might cause unexpected outcomes due to complex interactions among native and non-native prey. Moreover, external factors such as habitat alteration and resource availability can affect such dynamics. We hypothesized that native and non-native prey respond differently to an invasive predator, habitat alteration, and bottom–up effects. To test the hypothesis, we used Bayesian state-space modelling to analyse 8-year data on the spatio-temporal patterns of two endemic rat species and the non-native black rat in response to the continual removal of the invasive small Indian mongoose on Amami Island, Japan. Despite low reproductive potentials, the endemic rats recovered better after mongoose removal than did the black rat. The endemic species appeared to be vulnerable to predation by mongooses, whose eradica...外来入侵物种与人为生境改变是生物多样性丧失的主要驱动因素。当多种入侵物种占据不同营养级时，移除入侵捕食者可能因本地与非本地猎物间的复杂种间互作引发意外结果。此外，生境改变与资源可获得性等外部因素可对这类动态过程产生影响。我们提出假说：本地与非本地猎物对入侵捕食者、生境改变及上行效应的响应存在显著差异。为验证该假说，我们采用贝叶斯状态空间模型（Bayesian state-space modelling），分析了8年监测数据，以探究日本奄美大岛上两种特有鼠类与非本地黑鼠在入侵性小印度猫鼬（small Indian mongoose）持续移除过程中的时空分布格局变化。尽管繁殖潜力较低，但相较于非本地黑鼠，两种特有鼠类在猫鼬移除后种群恢复效果更佳。上述特有鼠类似乎易受猫鼬捕食，其根除……