Pintar Matthew R, Dorn Nathan J
Institute of Environment, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 33199, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 23;15(1):17975. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-02887-y.
Ecosystem restoration often aims to create environmental conditions that support communities of native organisms resembling those prior to alteration by humans. One focus of the multi-decade multi-billion-dollar Florida Everglades restoration effort is to recreate hydrologic conditions in Everglades National Park and associated pulses of aquatic animal prey to support the large colonies of seasonally nesting wading birds that are iconic predators in the ecosystem. Recent studies indicate that invasion of predatory Asian Swamp Eels (Monopterus albus/javanensis) has disrupted the hydrology-mediated production of crayfish and some small fishes in the drainage of first invasion (circa 2012). Here we used a complete community dataset of fish and decapods to report changes to the aquatic community diversity, composition, and biomass of prey produced for wading birds. After the establishment of swamp eels in Taylor Slough (Everglades National Park) average fish and decapod richness declined by 25% and communities shifted to a new state dominated by grass shrimp and a few species of small fishes. Swamp eels differentially reduced the production of primary wading bird resources; while there has been a 68% decline in total small fish and decapod biomass, the biomass of the most important prey species for nesting wading birds declined 80%. If similar impacts follow the spread of swamp eels into other major drainages of the Everglades, the invasion may precipitate an ecosystem collapse-fundamentally simplifying and restructuring the aquatic communities of this vast wetland ecosystem and limiting the trophic support for wading bird breeding aggregations that are important indicators for ecological restoration.
生态系统恢复通常旨在创造有利于本地生物群落的环境条件，使其类似于人类改造之前的群落。长达数十年、耗资数十亿美元的佛罗里达大沼泽地恢复工作的一个重点是，在大沼泽地国家公园重新营造水文条件以及相关的水生动物猎物脉冲，以支持季节性筑巢的大型涉禽群落，这些涉禽是该生态系统中的标志性捕食者。最近的研究表明，掠食性亚洲沼泽鳗（单孔目鳗鲡属/爪哇鳗）的入侵扰乱了水文介导的小龙虾和一些小鱼在首次入侵排水区（约2012年）的产量。在这里，我们使用了鱼类和十足目动物的完整群落数据集，报告了为涉禽生产的水生群落多样性、组成和生物量的变化。在泰勒泥沼（大沼泽地国家公园）建立沼泽鳗之后，鱼类和十足目动物的平均丰富度下降了25%，群落转变为以草虾和几种小鱼为主的新状态。沼泽鳗不同程度地减少了主要涉禽资源的产量；虽然小型鱼类和十足目动物的总生物量下降了68%，但筑巢涉禽最重要的猎物物种的生物量下降了80%。如果沼泽鳗扩散到佛罗里达大沼泽地的其他主要排水区后产生类似影响，这种入侵可能会引发生态系统崩溃——从根本上简化和重组这个广阔湿地生态系统的水生群落，并限制对涉禽繁殖聚集区的营养支持，而涉禽繁殖聚集区是生态恢复的重要指标。
