RT Unpublished Material
T1 Invasive species and habitat degradation in Iberian streams: an explicit analysis of their role and interactiveeffects on freshwater fish biodiversity loss
A1 Hermoso López, Virgilio
A1 Clavero Pineda, Miguel
A1 Blanco Garrido, Francisco
A1 Prenda Marín, José
AB The diversity of life on Earth is under the so called biodiversity crisis, which is specially pressingin freshwater ecosystems. Habitat loss and degradation and invasive species are commonly cited as themain causes. Distinguishing the role of each extinction driver and their potential interactions through amechanistic understanding of impact is crucial for achieving conservation goals.2. We analyze whether freshwater fish invasive species are mere passengers co-occurring in thebiodiversity loss process driven by habitat degradation or as main drivers of the decline of native fishcommunities in an Iberian basin. Moreover, since few invaded ecosystems are free from habitat loss anddegradation, we also tested whether native species simply responded to the abundance of invasive speciesor if habitat degradation modified the functional relationships between natives and invasive species.3. We found invasive species to be leading the decline of freshwater fish native communities, whilehabitat degradation neither played an active role nor influenced invasive species per capita effect onnatives. Lower reaches and areas close to reservoirs held the most seriously injured fish communitiesindependently of their habitat degradation status. Then Mediterranean freshwater fish show someresilience to habitat perturbations while invasive species should be raised to the center of attention ofconservation actions. Moreover, the essential ecological role that hydrologically stable reaches might playfor native communities’ persistence in highly fluctuating environments, such as the Mediterranean, isendangered by the proliferation of invasive species in those environments.4. Synthesis and applications: Conservation efforts to reduce biodiversity loss amongMediterranean areas freshwater fish communities should focus on mitigating the effect of invasive speciesespecially in better conserved areas. However, the high cost and low efficiency of management actionsagainst invasive species may difficult the effective fight against invasive threats, while new tools such asharder legislation could help reduce the current introduction rates. The roles of different drivers leadingthe decay of native communities should not be directly extrapolated across taxonomic groups and/orenvironments, but be analyzed in different particular situations in order to tackle objective managementplans facing the current biodiversity problem.
PB Wiley-Blacqwell
SN 0021-8901
YR 2010
FD 2010-03-02T12:23:25Z
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/2722
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/2722
LA eng
NO HERMOSO LÓPEZ, Virgilio ; CLAVERO PINEDA, Miguel ;  BLANCO-GARRIDO, Francisco ; PRENDA MARÍN, José. "Invasive species and habitat degradation in Iberian streams: an explicit analysis of their". Journal of applied ecology. ISSN 0021-8901
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 30 may 2026