Behavioral dependent dispersal in the invasive round goby Neogobius melanostomus depends on population age

Biological invasions cause major ecological and economic costs in invaded habitats. The round goby Neogobius melanostomus is a successful invasive species and a major threat to the biodiversity and ecological function of the Baltic Sea. It is native to the Ponto-Caspian region and has, via ballast water transport of ships, invaded the Gulf of Gdansk in Poland. Since 1990, it has spread as far north as Raahe in Northern Finland (64 degrees 41'04"N, 24 degrees 28'44"E). Over the past decade, consistent individual differences of behavioral expressions have been shown to explain various ecological processes such as dispersal, survival or reproduction. We have previously shown that new and old populations differ in personality trait expression. Individuals in new populations are bolder, less sociable and more active than in old populations. Here we investigate if the behavioral differentiation can be explained by phenotype-dependent dispersal. This was investigated by measuring activity, boldness and sociability of individually marked gobies, and subsequently allowing them to disperse in a system composed of five consecutive tanks connected by tubes. Individual dispersal tendency and distance was measured. Our results revealed that in newly established populations, more active individuals disperse sooner and that latency of a group to disperse depends on the mean sociability of the group. This indicates the presence of personality dependent dispersal in this species and that it is maintained at the invasion front but lost as the populations get older.