Browsing by Author "Blackburn, T. M."

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    Four priority areas to advance invasion science in the face of rapid environmental change
    (Canadian Science Publishing, 2021) Ricciardi, A.; Iacarella, J. C.; Aldridge, D. C.; Blackburn, T. M.; Carlton, J. T.; Catford, J. A.; Dick, J. T. A.; Hulme, P. E.; Jeschke, J. M.; Liebhold, A. M.; Lockwood, J. L.; MacIsaac, H. J.; Meyerson, L. A.; Pysek, P.; Richardson, D. M.; Ruiz, G. M.; Simberloff, D.; Vila, M.; Wardle, D. A.
    Unprecedented rates of introduction and spread of non-native species pose burgeoning challenges to biodiversity, natural resource management, regional economies, and human health. Current biosecurity efforts are failing to keep pace with globalization, revealing critical gaps in our understanding and response to invasions. Here, we identify four priority areas to advance invasion science in the face of rapid global environmental change. First, invasion science should strive to develop a more comprehensive framework for predicting how the behavior, abundance, and interspecific interactions of non-native species vary in relation to conditions in receiving environments and how these factors govern the ecological impacts of invasion. A second priority is to understand the potential synergistic effects of multiple co-occurring stressors— particularly involving climate change—on the establishment and impact of non-native species. Climate adaptation and mitigation strategies will need to consider the possible consequences of promoting non-native species, and appropriate management responses to non-native species will need to be developed. The third priority is to address the taxonomic impediment. The ability to detect and evaluate invasion risks is compromised by a growing deficit in taxonomic expertise, which cannot be adequately compensated by new molecular technologies alone. Management of biosecurity risks will become increasingly challenging unless academia, industry, and governments train and employ new personnel in taxonomy and systematics. Fourth, we recommend that internationally cooperative biosecurity strategies consider the bridgehead effects of global dispersal networks, in which organisms tend to invade new regions from locations where they have already established. Cooperation among countries to eradicate or control species established in bridgehead regions should yield greater benefit than independent attempts by individual countries to exclude these species from arriving and establishing.
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    No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide
    (Nature Research (part of Springer Nature), 2017) Seebens, Hanno; Blackburn, T. M.; Dyer, E. E.; Genovesi, P.; Hulme, P. E.; Jeschke, J. M.; Pagad, S.; Pysek, P.; Winter, M.; Arianoutsou, M.; Bacher, S.; Blasius, B.; Brundu, G.; Capinha, G.; Celesti-Grapow, L.; Dawson, W.; Dullinger, S.; Fuentes, N.; Jager, H.; Kartesz, J.; Kenis, M.; Kreft, H.; Kuhn, I; Lenzner, B.; Liebhold, A.; Mosena, A.; Moser, D.; Nishino, M.; Pearman, D.; Pergl, J.; Rabitsch, W.; Rojas-Sandoval, J.; Roques, A.; Rorke, S.; Rossinelli, S.; Roy, H. E.; Scalera, R.; Schindler, S.; Stajerova, K.; Tokarska-Guzik, B.; Van Kleunen, M.; Walker, K.; Weigelt, P.; Yamanaka, T.; Essl, F.
    Although research on human-mediated exchanges of species has substantially intensified during the last centuries, we know surprisingly little about temporal dynamics of alien species accumulations across regions and taxa. Using a novel database of 45,813 first records of 16,926 established alien species, we show that the annual rate of first records worldwide has increased during the last 200 years, with 37% of all first records reported most recently (1970–2014). Inter-continental and inter-taxonomic variation can be largely attributed to the diaspora of European settlers in the nineteenth century and to the acceleration in trade in the twentieth century. For all taxonomic groups, the increase in numbers of alien species does not show any sign of saturation and most taxa even show increases in the rate of first records over time. This highlights that past efforts to mitigate invasions have not been effective enough to keep up with increasing globalization.