Island Hopping through Urban Filters: Anthropogenic Habitats and Colonized Landscapes Alter Morphological and Performance Traits of an Invasive Amphibian.

ABSTRACT: A prominent feature of the modern era is the increasing spread of invasive species, particularly within island and urban ecosystems, and these occurrences provide valuable natural experiments by which evolutionary and invasion hypotheses can be tested. In this study, we used the invasion route of guttural toads (Sclerophrys gutturalis) from natural-native and urban-native populations (Durban, South Africa) to their urban-invasive and natural-invasive populations (Mauritius and Réunion) to determine whether phenotypic changes that arose once the toads became urbanized in their native range have increased their invasive potential before they were transported (i.e., prior adaptation) or whether the observed changes are unique to the invasive populations. This urban/natural by native/in

SUBMITTER: Baxter-Gilbert J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9559409 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature