ORIGINAL PAPER Biogeographic comparisons of the traits and abundance of an invasive crab throughout its native and invasive ranges Paul E. Gribben • Sam I’Ons • Nicole E. Phillips • Shane W. Geange • Jeffrey T. Wright • Brad R. Murray Received: 21 June 2012 / Accepted: 3 January 2013 / Published online: 22 January 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract High abundances of non-native species in the invaded range may be linked to changes in fitness related traits. However, few studies have compared differences in both life-history traits and abundances of introduced species between their native and invaded ranges. We determined differences in 12 morpholog- ical traits, an important fitness related trait (body size), and the abundance of the porcelain crab, Petrolisthes elongatus, in its native (New Zealand) and invasive (Tasmania, Australia) ranges. P. elongatus was more abundant in the introduced range; however, changes in abundance depended on tidal height, with higher abundances only at mid and low tidal zones. The biomass of male crabs was higher in the invaded range compared to the native range, but there was no difference in female biomass between ranges. Despite increases in male biomass, sex ratios between native and invasive populations did not differ. In addition, principal components analysis showed no differences in overall morphology between Tasmania and New Zealand. Our study indicates that increased abundance in the invaded range of P. elongatus may be linked to high values of an important trait (greater biomass) in the invaded range. Importantly, changes in biomass and abundance may be due to P. elongatus being able to utilise mid/low zones more in the invaded range. Furthermore, our findings indicate that understanding how sex specific changes in biomass interact with the recipient environment (biotic and abiotic) in the introduced range will be important for determining the mechanisms underpinning the establishment and spread of P. elongatus. Keywords Abundance  Biogeography  Biomass  Invasive  Life-history  Morphology  Petrolisthes elongatus Introduction Fundamental to managing invasive species is under- standing the factors that determine their successful geographic spread and deleterious impacts (Forslund et al. 2010). Shifts in key fitness related traits (e.g., P. E. Gribben (&)  S. I’Ons  B. R. Murray School of the Environment, Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia e-mail: Paul.Gribben@uts.edu.au N. E. Phillips  S. W. Geange School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, P. O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand J. T. Wright National Centre for Marine Conservation and Resource Sustainability, Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania, P.O. Box 986, Launceston 7250, Australia 123 Biol Invasions (2013) 15:1877–1885 DOI 10.1007/s10530-013-0416-0