Prediction

Read more about the article What can we learn about predicting impacts of alien predators from a globally invasive crab?
The number of mussel prey eaten by European shore crabs in native and various alien regions. (Graphic: Howard et al., 2018)
2019 / News

What can we learn about predicting impacts of alien predators from a globally invasive crab?

Because resources for addressing environmental problems are limited, it has been suggested that management should focus on those species that have the highest impacts in their new environments. Comparing the ability of alien and native species to utilize resources has been shown to offer a sound approach for identifying alien species with high impacts.

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11 February 2019
Read more about the article Measuring ecological impacts of alien species
The paper is one of the outcomes of a workshop held in Leipzig in July 2013 by the sImpact working group.
2015 / News

Measuring ecological impacts of alien species

Alien species cause a number of impacts in the ecosystems they live in, ranging from hardly detectable to dramatic change. Measuring such impacts is not always straightforward. Furthermore, a wide range of methods and variables has been used to describe these impacts, making comparison between species and habitats difficult.

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23 March 2015
Read more about the article Global distribution of the Argentine ant under the spotlight
Argentine ants tending scale insects on an orange tree in suburban California (Photo by Alex Wild).
2011 / Highlighted papers

Global distribution of the Argentine ant under the spotlight

Because of the numerous threats posed by invasive species to natural ecosystems, a major goal of invasion biology is to understand the factors explaining the distribution of species worldwide. Despite the many efforts at local and regional scales to predict areas vulnerable to invasion, the relative roles of biotic and abiotic conditions on the global distribution of species are still rather poorly understood.

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25 January 2011
Read more about the article Facilitation of invasions by widespread pollinators
Specialised plants need not necessarily find the exact same pollinator species in the novel range as pollinators are often functionally equivalent from the plant’s point of view. Nicotiana glauca is specialised for hummingbird pollination in Argentina but has recruited sunbirds to pollinate it in South Africa (photo E). Hummingbirds and sunbirds both belong to a functional group of specialist nectar feeding bird pollinators. Similar examples exist for other pollinator functional groups. Stapelia gigantea, native to South Africa where it is pollinated by carrion flies (photo A), is invasive in Venezuela by virtue of pollination by indigenous carrion flies (photo B, taken in Cerro Seroche National Park, Venezuela); Gomphocarpus physocarpus is pollinated by paper wasps (Vespidae) in its native range in South Africa (photo C) and in Australia where it is invasive (Photo D) and the buzz-pollinated Senna didymobotrya from West Africa is pollinated by carpenter bees (Xylocopa, Apidae) in South Africa (photo F). Photo credits: A, C, & F by SD Johnson, B by I. Herrera, D by M. Ward and E by S. Geerts.
2010 / Highlighted papers

Facilitation of invasions by widespread pollinators

It’s an old idea that plants that are specialised for particular pollinators should become invasive less often than those which can be pollinated by a broad range of animal species. Most plant species will not encounter their original pollinators when introduced elsewhere so to reproduce in their novel range they will have to recruit novel pollinators.

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4 October 2010