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Human activities favour prolific life histories in both traded and introduced vertebrates

Street, Sally E.; Gutiérrez, Jorge S.; Allen, William L.; Capellini, Isabella

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Authors

Jorge S. Gutiérrez

William L. Allen

Isabella Capellini



Abstract

Species’ life histories determine population demographics and thus the probability that introduced populations establish and spread. Life histories also influence which species are most likely to be introduced, but how such ‘introduction biases’ arise remains unclear. Here, we investigate how life histories affect the probability of trade and introduction in phylogenetic comparative analyses across three vertebrate classes: mammals, reptiles and amphibians. We find that traded species have relatively high reproductive rates and long reproductive lifespans. Within traded species, introduced species have a more extreme version of this same life history profile. Species in the pet trade also have long reproductive lifespans but lack ‘fast’ traits, likely reflecting demand for rare species which tend to have slow life histories. We identify multiple species not yet traded or introduced but with life histories indicative of high risk of future trade, introduction and potentially invasion. Our findings suggest that species with high invasion potential are favoured in the wildlife trade and therefore that trade regulation is crucial for preventing future invasions.

Citation

Street, S. E., Gutiérrez, J. S., Allen, W. L., & Capellini, I. (2023). Human activities favour prolific life histories in both traded and introduced vertebrates. Nature Communications, 14(1), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35765-6

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 28, 2022
Online Publication Date Jan 17, 2023
Publication Date 2023
Deposit Date Jul 3, 2023
Publicly Available Date Jul 3, 2023
Journal Nature Communications
Electronic ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 14
Issue 1
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35765-6
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1169977

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.






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