NDLI: Experimental evidence that human impacts drive fire ant invasions and ecological change

Content Provider	PubMed Central
Author	King, Joshua R. Tschinkel, Walter R.
Abstract	Biological invasions are often closely associated with human impacts and it is difficult to determine whether either or both are responsible for the negative impacts on native communities. Here, we show that human activity, not biological invasion, is the primary driver of negative effects on native communities and of the process of invasion itself. In a large-scale experiment, we combined additions of the exotic fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, with 2 disturbance treatments, mowing and plowing, in a fully crossed factorial design. Results indicate that plowing, in the absence of fire ants, greatly diminished total native ant abundance and diversity, whereas fire ants, even in the absence of disturbance, diminished some, but not all, native ant abundance and diversity. Transplanted fire ant colonies were favored by disturbance. In the absence of disturbance and on their own, fire ants do not invade the forest habitats of native ants. Our results demonstrate that fire ants are “passengers” rather than “drivers” of ecological change. We propose that fire ants may be representative of other invasive species that would be better described as disturbance specialists. Current pest management and conservation strategies should be reassessed to better account for the central role of human impacts in the process of biological invasion.
Related Links	http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0809423105
Ending Page	20343
Page Count	5
Starting Page	20339
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00278424
e-ISSN	10916490
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Issue Number	51
Volume Number	105
Language	English
Publisher	National Academy of Sciences
Publisher Date	2008-12-23
Access Restriction	Open
Rights Holder	National Academy of Sciences
Subject Keyword	General Research in Higher Education
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Multidisciplinary

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