Evolutionarily accelerated invasions: the rate of dispersal evolves upwards during the range advance of cane toads

Human activities are changing habitats and climates and causing species' ranges to shift. Range expansion brings into play a set of powerful evolutionary forces at the expanding range edge that act to increase dispersal rates. One likely consequence of these forces is accelerating rates of rang...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evolutionary biology 2010-12, Vol.23 (12), p.2595-2601
Main Authors: PHILLIPS, B.L, BROWN, G.P, SHINE, R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amphibia
amphibians and reptiles
Animal populations
Animals
Australia
Biological Evolution
Breeding
Bufonidae - anatomy & histology
Bufonidae - genetics
Bufonidae - physiology
Climate
Dispersal
Environment
Evolution
Evolutionary biology
Female
Genetic diversity
Genetic Variation
Habitat
Homing Behavior
Introduced Species
Invasions
life history evolution
Male
Nonnative species
Population genetics
quantitative genetics
Toads
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Human activities are changing habitats and climates and causing species' ranges to shift. Range expansion brings into play a set of powerful evolutionary forces at the expanding range edge that act to increase dispersal rates. One likely consequence of these forces is accelerating rates of range advance because of evolved increases in dispersal on the range edge. In northern Australia, cane toads have increased their rate of spread fivefold in the last 70 years. Our breeding trials with toads from populations spanning the species' invasion history in Australia suggest a genetic basis to dispersal rates and interpopulation genetic variation in such rates. Toads whose parents were from the expanding range front dispersed faster than toads whose parents were from the core of the range. This difference reflects patterns found in their field‐collected mothers and fathers and points to heritable variance in the traits that have accelerated the toads' rate of invasion across tropical Australia over recent decades. Taken together with demonstrated spatial assortment by dispersal ability occurring on the expanding front, these results point firmly to ongoing evolution as a driving force in the accelerated expansion of toads across northern Australia.
ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02118.x