Cane toad pioneers speed up invasions

(Phys.org) —Climate change is one of a number of stressors that cause species to disperse to new locations. Scientists must be able to predict dispersal rates accurately, as the movement of a new species into an area can have a significant, and sometimes detrimental, effect on that area's ecology. When studying dispersal rates of cane toads in Australia, Tom Lindstrom of the University of Sydney and his colleagues found that toads that are first to move into a new area travel at faster rates than toads that arrive later. Their research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that failure to account for this has caused scientists to severely underestimate dispersal rates.

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