DOI: 10.5061/dryad.p1t111n
title: Data from: Eradicating abundant invasive prey could cause unexpected and varied biodiversity outcomes: the importance of multi-species interactions

description: 1. Abundant and widely-distributed invasive prey can negatively affect
 co-occurring native species by competing for food and/or shelter, removing
 vegetation cover and reducing habitat complexity (changing predation
 risk), and by sustaining elevated abundances of invasive mesopredators.
 However, information regarding the community and trophic consequences of
 controlling invasive prey, and their temporal dynamics, remain poorly
 understood. 2. We used multi-species ecological network models to simulate
 the consequences of changing European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus
 abundance in an arid mammalian community. We quantified how changes in the
 dominant prey (rabbits) affected multiple trophic levels, examining
 changes in predator-prey interactions through time and how they affected
 native prey persistence. 3. Our results suggest that removal of rabbits
 can benefit native biodiversity immediately at removal rates between 30
 and 40%. However, beyond these levels, densities of small native mammals
 will decline in the short term. The processes underpinning these declines
 are: (i) increased competition for resources (vegetation) with kangaroos
 Macropus spp., whose numbers increase due to their release from
 competition with rabbits; and (ii) increased predation (prey switching) by
 feral cats Felis catus. Both of these effects are mediated by dingoes
 Canis dingo, a native apex predator. 4. Importantly, native mammal
 abundance recovers after a time delay, which is prolonged when high rates
 of rabbit control are applied. This is likely due to a reduction in
 hyper-predation by invasive feral cats and red foxes Vulpes vulpes
 following rabbit removal. 5. Continued eradication of rabbits in arid
 Australia will benefit native species due to a decrease in apparent
 competition for resources and by alleviating hyper-predation from invasive
 mesopredators. Furthermore, ecosystem-level conservation benefits of
 reducing invasive prey abundance are as important as direct control of
 invasive mesopredators. Synthesis and applications. Multi-species
 ecological network models provide wildlife managers with tools to better
 understand and predict the complex effects of species removal and control
 on both intact and modified ecosystems. Our results show that management
 of the Australian arid zone can benefit from controlling invasive prey as
 well as invasive predators. However, invasive species control can cause
 unexpected outcomes on native biodiversity. This extends to other systems
 where dominant prey may play fundamental roles in ecosystem structure and
 function.
description: Source code of
 Australian arid food web modelSource code in the R
 programming language developed to simulate the community dynamics in a
 multi-species food web model of the arid Australian ecosystem including 7
 nodes: vegetation, European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), a generic
 small native mammal species, kangaroos (Macropus spp.), feral cat (Felis
 catus), fox (Vulpes vulpes), and dingo (Canis dingo).JPElurgiSA3.z