Sponsor
R.J. and K.W. were supported by grants from NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management to the Elkhorn Slough NERR; B.H. was supported by a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship; data collection by C.d.R. and E.D.G. was supported by NSF (OCE-RAPID1514893, to E.D.G., C.d.R., and G.M.R.), the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (Contract 10–12, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Awards NA06OAR4170261, NA06OAR4170159, NA07OAR4170501, NA08OAR4170927.
Published In
Biological Invasions
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2025
Subjects
Aquatic invasive species -- Carcinus maenas, Ecosystems -- California
Abstract
Understanding the role of apex predators on ecosystems is essential for designing effective conservation strategies. Supporting recovery of apex predators can have many benefits; one that has been rarely examined is control of invasive prey. We investigated whether a recovering apex predator, the southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis), can exert local control over a global marine invader, the green crab (Carcinus maenas). We determined that southern sea otters in Elkhorn Slough estuary in California can consume large numbers of invasive green crabs and found strong negative relationships in space and time between otter and green crab abundance. Green crabs persisted at highest abundance in this estuary at sites with artificial tidal restriction that were not accessible to otters. Green crab abundance remained lower in this estuary than in all other estuaries in the region, which lack resident sea otters. Conservation organizations and agencies have invested heavily in recovery of southern sea otters, increasing their numbers in this estuary. Restoration of natural tidal exchange, lost marshes, and seagrass beds further support sea otter populations. We have demonstrated that these investments in top predator recovery and habitat restoration have reduced the impacts of a global invader. Our investigation highlights that investment in recovery of top predators can increase beneficial food web interactions and resilience of the entire ecosystem.
Rights
Open Access 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 licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence 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 licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1007/s10530-024-03467-3
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42928
Citation Details
Jeppesen, R., de Rivera, C. E., Grosholz, E. D., Tinker, M. T., Hughes, B. B., Eby, R., & Wasson, K. (2024). Recovering population of the southern sea otter suppresses a global marine invader. Biological Invasions, 27(1).