A group led by Professor Tadashi Miyashita of the Department of Biosphere Systems, Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo, is promoting the growth of the exotic crayfish, which creates a favorable environment for itself by cutting waterweeds. I proved that.
It is known that the invasion of alien species will significantly change the ecosystem, but it is not easy to eradicate alien species once they have become established.The crayfish is an invasive alien species that causes a decrease in native species and alteration of the ecosystem in Japan's freshwater ecosystem, but there were many unclear points about the mechanism of its increase.Traditionally, crayfish have been known to behave like reaping, even though they do not feed on aquatic plants, but their significance has been unclear.
Therefore, through two types of experiments, the research group improved the efficiency of catching organisms by cutting aquatic plants to change the aquatic environment to an open one and eliminating the hideouts of prey organisms. It was revealed that it is promoting the growth of the crayfish.Through this study, we succeeded in elucidating a part of the new mechanism of rapid increase of alien species.
This result suggests that the increase of alien species may be suppressed to some extent by appropriately managing the habitat of alien species.In other words, it is expected that the conservation and introduction of these will reduce the alteration of the ecosystem.
Paper information:[BMC Ecology] Habitat modification by invasive crayfish can facilitate its growth through enhanced food accessibility
