Populations of invasive species usually have reduced genetic diversity, creating the so-called ‘invasion paradox’, because conventional wisdom considers high genetic variation to be crucial for rapid adaptation to novel environments. The EU-funded INVASOMICS project will address this paradox by investigating adaptive mechanisms that promote invasion success in widespread invasive freshwater vertebrate and invertebrate species. The research will study the phenotypic differentiation of wild populations of the eastern mosquitofish in a eutrophication gradient, complemented by laboratory ecotoxicology experiments, both in the native (Florida) and invasive (Spain) ranges of the model species. It will also study three sympatric freshwater amphipod species in Germany to assess potential competitive shifts in the invasive species stemming from higher tolerances to eutrophication.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101024805.
