title: Recurrent camouflaged invasions and dispersal of an Asian freshwater gastropod in tropical Africa.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Non-indigenous taxa currently represent a large fraction of the species and biomass of freshwater ecosystems. The accumulation of invasive taxa in combination with other stressors in these ecosystems may alter the habitats to which native taxa are adapted, which could elicit evolutionary changes in native populations and their ecological interactions. Assessing ecological and evolutionary consequences of invasions simultaneously may therefore be the most effective approach to study taxa with complex invasion histories. Here we apply such an integrated approach to the cerithioid gastropod Melanoides tuberculata, a model system in invasion biology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Molecular phylogenetics and ancestral range reconstructions allowed us to identify several independent Asian invasions in Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika, the Congo River, Nigeria and Cameroon. Some invasive M. tuberculata populations display much variation in shell morphology, and overlap in morphospace with M. tuberculata populations native to Africa. Experiments confirmed great ecophenotyic plasticity in some invasive populations, which, in combination with the overlap in disparity with native populations, masks invaders and their dispersal through Africa. Finally, the results of geographic modeling indicate that cryptic M. tuberculata invasions occurred primarily in densely populated areas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We reveal the continental nature of invasions of Asian M. tuberculata to Africa. Several of the affected ecosystems have high endemicity in Cerithioidea: Lake Tanganyika has an unparalleled diversity in freshwater cerithioids (>10 endemic genera) and the Congo Basin and Lake Malawi are home to the two largest endemic species clusters of Melanoides in Africa (~12 and ~8 species, respectively). Cerithioids perform ecologically important functions in the benthic ecosystems of African freshwaters, but invaders and ecosystem change pose risks to their native diversity. We draw suggestions for more effective conservation strategies from our integrated approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Ecology and Systematics, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32 (IFZ), D-35392, Giessen, Germany. bert.vanbocxlaer@ugent.be.|Departments of Paleobiology and Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th and Constitution NW, Washington, DC, 20560, USA. bert.vanbocxlaer@ugent.be.|Research Unit Palaeontology, Department of Geology and Soil Science, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 (S8), 9000, Ghent, Belgium. bert.vanbocxlaer@ugent.be.|Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany. bert.vanbocxlaer@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Van Bocxlaer
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Ecology and Systematics, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32 (IFZ), D-35392, Giessen, Germany. catharina.clewing@allzool.bio.uni-giessen.de.
authors.forename: Catharina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Clewing
authors.affiliation: Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany. jpmongindo@alumni.ulg.ac.be.|Department of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture, University of Kisangani, BP 2012, Kisangani, D. R. Congo. jpmongindo@alumni.ulg.ac.be.
authors.forename: Jean-Papy
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mongindo Etimosundja
authors.affiliation: Department of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture, University of Kisangani, BP 2012, Kisangani, D. R. Congo. kankonda2000@yahoo.fr.
authors.forename: Alidor
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kankonda
authors.affiliation: Department of Hydrobiology and Aquaculture, University of Kisangani, BP 2012, Kisangani, D. R. Congo. wemboscar@yahoo.fr.|Department of Hydrobiology, Official University of Ruwenzori, BP 560, Butembo, D. R. Congo. wemboscar@yahoo.fr.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Wembo Ndeo
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Ecology and Systematics, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32 (IFZ), D-35392, Giessen, Germany. christian.albrecht@allzool.bio.uni-giessen.de.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Albrecht
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D049851:Gastropoda / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D060106:Lakes; D058974:Phylogeography; D011156:Population Density