Tracking the spread of the eastern dwarf tree frog (Litoria fallax) in Australia using citizen science
Jodi J. L. Rowley
A B * and Corey T. Callaghan C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.
B Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES), University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
C Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Davie, FL 33314-7719, USA.
Australian Journal of Zoology 70(6) 204-210 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO23012
Submitted: 21 March 2023 Accepted: 31 May 2023 Published: 28 June 2023
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
An increasing number of species are establishing populations outside of their native ranges, often with negative ecological and economic impacts. The detection and surveillance of invasive species presents a huge logistical challenge, given the large spatial regions in which new populations can appear. However, data collected through citizen science projects are increasingly recognised as a valuable source for detection and monitoring of invasive species. We use data from a national citizen science project, FrogID, to quantify the spread of the eastern dwarf tree frog (Litoria fallax) outside its historical native range in Australia. Of 48 012 records of L. fallax in the FrogID database, 485 were located far outside the historical native range of the species. L. fallax has established geographically large populations hundreds of kilometres away from its native range, and these appear to be spreading in extent over time. These populations have resulted in novel species co-occurrences, with L. fallax now co-occurring with at least two frog species not present in their native range. Although the impacts of the invasive populations of L. fallax remain unknown, our work highlights the value in leveraging citizen science projects to detect and monitor native species that can become invasive far outside their historical range.
Keywords: amphibian, biodiversity, community science, ecology, frogs, invasive species, monitoring, range expansion, species detection, species interactions.
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