Invasion and predation ecology of lionfish (Pterois miles) with a focus on the Mediterranean Sea

Lionfish are predatory fish native to the Indo-Pacific Ocean. They became famous for invading the western Atlantic Ocean and have recently established in the Mediterranean Sea too. While the western Atlantic invasion has been well studied, much less is known on the more recent Mediterranean invasion. With various projects, we contributed to monitoring the expansion of lionfish within the Mediterranean and assessed their impact on the local biodiversity. Lionfish are among the most effective predators in the animal kingdom and this is often presented as a factor that helps them as an invasive species. However, how exactly they approach their prey without triggering an antipredator response is unclear. With multiple behavioural experiments, we studied the role of camouflage and the peculiar jet-blowing behaviour in lionfish-prey interactions. With my PhD, we covered the predation and invasion ecology of lionfish at multiple ecological levels, from a single lionfish interacting with an individual prey to the ecosystem-level changes driven by lionfish invasions.