Invasiones biológicas en islas: dinámicas, impactos y gestión

Abstract

Island ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the impact of biological invasions. This is often aggravated by the complementarities and/or synergies between different invasive species, which in addition may lead to unexpected outcomes of management plans. In this dissertation I study the impact of invasive species and invasion complexes on island native biotas through an exercise of progressive increase in the complexity of four case studies. I evaluated the relative relevance of direct and indirect effects in simple and complex invasive systems, and used this knowledge to identify the most suitable management strategies in terms of minimising impacts and preventing potential counterintuitive effects on multi-species invasion complexes (hyperpredation, mesopredator release and competitor release). For this purpose I studied the behavioural and trophic interactions conformed among the invasive species and with the native biota, as well as the direct and indirect effects, throughout a combination of empirical observations and computer modelling.