Biotic Invasions: Causes, Epidemiology, Global Consequences and Control

Richard N. Mack
Daniel Simberloff
W. Mark Lonsdale
Harry Evans
Michael Clout
Fakhri Bazzaz

Issues in Ecology. Spring 2000. No. 5.

Abstract

Biotic invasions can occur when organisms are transported to new, often distant, ranges where their descendants proliferate, spread, and persist. In a strict sense, invasions are neither novel nor exclusively humandriven phenomena. But the geographic scope, frequency, and the number of species involved have grown enormously as a direct consequence of expanding transport and commerce in the past 500 years, and especially in the past 200 years. Few habitats on earth remain free of species introduced by humans; far fewer can be considered immune from this dispersal. The species involved represent an array of taxonomic categories and geographic origins that defy any ready classification. The adverse consequences of biotic invasions are diverse and inter-connected. Invaders can alter fundamental ecological properties such as the dominant species in a community and an ecosystem’s physical features, nutrient cycling, and plant productivity. The aggregate effects of human-caused invasions threaten efforts to conserve biodiversity, maintain productive agricultural systems, sustain functioning natural ecosystems, and also protect human health. We outline below the epidemiology of invasions, hypotheses on the causes of invasions, the environmental and economic toll they take, and tools and strategies for reducing this toll.