Tradeoffs between dispersal and reproduction at an invasion front of cane toads in tropical Australia.

ABSTRACT: Individuals at the leading edge of a biological invasion experience novel evolutionary pressures on mating systems, due to low population densities coupled with tradeoffs between reproduction and dispersal. Our dissections of >1,200 field-collected cane toads (Rhinella marina) at a site in tropical Australia reveal rapid changes in morphological and reproductive traits over a three-year period after the invaders first arrived. As predicted, individuals with dispersal-enhancing traits (longer legs, narrower heads) had reduced reproductive investment (lower gonad mass). Post-invasion, the population was increasingly dominated by individuals with less dispersive phenotypes and a higher investment into reproduction (including, increased expression of sexually dimorphic traits in males). These

SUBMITTER: Kelehear C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6965623 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature