Eradicating abundant invasive prey could cause unexpected and varied biodiversity outcomes: the importance of multi-species interactions

1. Abundant and widely-distributed invasive prey can negatively affect co-occurring native species by competing for food and/or shelter, removing vegetation cover and reducing habitat complexity (changing predation risk), and by sustaining elevated abundances of invasive mesopredators. However, information regarding the community and trophic consequences of controlling invasive prey, and their temporal dynamics, remain poorly understood.
2. We used multi-species ecological network models to simulate the consequences of changing European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus abundance in an arid mammalian community. We quantified how changes in the dominant prey (rabbits) affected multiple trophic levels, examining changes in predator-prey interactions through time and how they affected native prey persistence.
3. Our results suggest that removal of rabbits can benefit native biodiversity immediately at removal rates between 30 and 40%. However, beyond these levels, densities of small native m...

1. 分布广泛且种群充裕的入侵猎物，可通过争夺食物与栖息遮蔽物、破坏植被覆盖并降低生境复杂度（改变捕食风险），以及维持入侵中型捕食者的种群丰度，对同域共存的本土物种产生负面影响。然而，当前学界对于管控入侵猎物所引发的群落与营养级联效应，及其时间动态的相关认知仍较为匮乏。
2. 本研究采用多物种生态网络模型，模拟了干旱区哺乳动物群落中欧洲兔（Oryctolagus cuniculus）种群数量变化所带来的生态后果。研究量化了作为优势猎物的欧洲兔种群变化对多个营养级的影响，同时考察了捕食者-猎物互作关系随时间的演变，以及该变化对本土猎物存续情况的影响。
3. 我们的研究结果显示，当移除率介于30%至40%时，移除欧洲兔可立即对本土生物多样性产生积极效益。但当移除率超出该区间时，小型本土m...