{"id":3091,"date":"2015-09-01T13:33:51","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T11:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/?p=3091"},"modified":"2020-09-22T15:23:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T13:23:58","slug":"preying-on-alien-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/preying-on-alien-species\/","title":{"rendered":"Preying on alien species"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we consider how invasive alien species affect native species, we mainly think of alien predators preying on native species. However, there are examples of native species that prey on alien species – which leads ecologists to the question \u201cwhat are the effects of alien prey on predatory-prey relationships<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

This question was investigated in a study by C\u00b7I\u00b7B postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Mhairi Alexander. The study, which was published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology<\/em>,<\/a> focused on the invasion by two alien mussels, the Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis<\/em>) and the Pacific mussel (Semimytilus algosus<\/em>), and how they influence the feeding choices of the native predatory whelk, Trochia cingulate.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The
The alien invasive Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus Galloprovincialis) was first recorded in the late 1970s and has now invaded more than 2000 km of the South African coastline. (Photo credit: Sophia Turner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Surveys found that in comparison to a previous study in 1983, the type of mussels found on the shore had changed over the past 30 years. The native species the Black mussel (Choromytilus meridionalis)<\/em> disappeared with the arrival of the alien mussels. The native whelks, that previously preferred to eat native mussels, had changed their choice of prey and now prefer to eat the alien mussels.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the whelks didn\u2019t seem to base their foraging on chemical cues from the mussels, they appeared to make their choice based on handling experiences<\/em>.\u201d says Mhairi Alexander. She explains \u201cIt was interesting to see that the whelks\u2019 experience with one invasive mussel facilitated their feeding on a second, morphologically similar invasive mussel.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the paper<\/h4>\n

M.E. Alexander, Raven, H.J. and Robinson, T.B. (2015) Foraging decisions of a native whelk, Trochia cingulata<\/em> Linnaeus, and the effects of invasive mussels on prey choice. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology<\/em> 470 (2015) 26\u201333<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information, contact Mhairi Alexander at malexander@sun.ac.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we consider how invasive alien species affect native species, we mainly think of alien predators preying on native species. However, there are examples of native species that prey on alien species – which leads ecologists to the question \u201cwhat are the effects of alien prey on predatory-prey relationships?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":3092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[73242,3256],"tags":[2482,72845,73367,73368,73369,72846,73299],"class_list":["post-3091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2015-news","category-news","tag-invasive-species","tag-mytilus-galloprovincialis","tag-novel-prey","tag-predatory","tag-prey-switching","tag-semimytilus-algosus","tag-whelk","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3093,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions\/3093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w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