Biogeography of plant invasions

Abstract

The fact that most of our worst animal and weed pests come from other continents is no coincidence. Biological invasions are fundamentally a biogeographic phenomenon. That is to say, there is something rather significant about taking an organism from a specific evolutionary history and ecological context and casting it into an entirely new environment that can profoundly change ecological interactions. This fact has been largely ignored over much of the history of research on exotic species invasions; most of this research is done in the invaded range, and some in the native range, but very little involves comparative work in both ranges. No doubt, some of this oversight is due to the grand challenges associated with studying species at global scales. Nonetheless, this constraint has greatly hindered understandings in invasion biology and applications of weed management. How can we manage a species if we do not know why it is invasive?

Citation

Pearson, Dean; Ortega, Yvette. 2013. Biogeography of plant invasions. In: Fornwalt, Paula. Invasive Species Science Update (No. 6). Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 2-3.