Invasive plants can have devastating effects on local ecologies, comparable to the effects wrought by global warming.
Invasive plants can have devastating effects on local ecologies, comparable to the effects wrought by global warming. And yet, there is currently no reliable understanding of how many invasive plant species there are in the world. New research, led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and recently published in Ecological Applications, is the first to comprehensively pinpoint the various unknowns that need to be addressed in order to intelligently manage invasive species around the world.
The most cost-effective method of stopping invasive species is to put a halt to their introduction. In order for this to happen, managers need to know exactly what plants are invasive. Existing lists of global invasive plants include species that have been reported by scientists, but species that haven’t yet been reported as invasive still pose a risk. The team at UMass Amherst, led by Brittany Laginhas, who completed the research as part of her graduate work at UMass, mined a database of 5,893 studies, stretching back to 1959, to paint the most complete picture of the world’s invasive species yet.
“Trade and climate change have facilitated the widespread movement of species around the globe,” says Brittany Laginhas, who completed this research as part of her graduate studies at UMass Amherst and is the paper’s lead author. “In some cases, these species will establish and spread in their new environment, causing devastating ecological and economic damages. Basic information on invasive species, including which species are invasive, where they have invaded, and their timing of invasion, is critical for developing strategies to prevent their spread and subsequent damages.”
Read more at University of Massachusetts Amherst
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