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Bugs in Boxes Shed Light on Biological Invasions
September 21, 2009Bugs in boxes are helping UC Davis researcher Alan Hastings improve scientific tools used to predict the spread of invasive plants and animals.
In today's edition of the journal Science, Hastings and a University of Colorado colleague report their latest findings from both a tightly controlled laboratory experiment and a mathematical model: When they released 600 identical beetles and let them spread at will through 30 identical landscapes over 13 generations, there was a surprising degree of difference in the outcome.
Some of the beetles went far and fast, traveling across 31 landscape patches in the 15-month experiment, while others went only a third as far. The rest fell somewhere in the middle.
Hastings said the results suggest that it won't be as easy as some had hoped to catalog all the factors that influence the spread of an invasion.
If it is difficult to predict the course of an invasion, it will be difficult to control it. And there are hundreds of destructive invaders in the U.S. alone, from kudzu to zebra mussels to the light brown apple moth.
"There appears to be this intrinsic variability, even in the simplest ecological settings, that means that difficulty in prediction is a basic feature of ecological systems," said Hastings, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy.
Hastings is currently a principal investigator or co-investigator on four grants totaling more than $1 million. These studies range from researching the dynamics of salmon and cod populations to species' response to global climate change.
Hastings' collaborator and co-author Brett Melbourne was previously a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis, and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
If invasion forecasts are to improve, Melbourne said, ecologists will have to keep trying to quantify the randomness in environmental and biological processes. "Ecological forecasts will become more like weather forecasts, with a stated range of probability but not certainty, like when the meteorologist says there is a 75 percent chance of rain on Thursday."
The study, "Highly Variable Spread Rates in Replicated Biological Invasions: Fundamental Limits to Predictability," is online at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/325/5947/1536.
It was funded by the National Science Foundation.
University of California - Davis
Hastings said the results suggest that it won't be as easy as some had hoped to catalog all the factors that influence the spread of an invasion.
If it is difficult to predict the course of an invasion, it will be difficult to control it. And there are hundreds of destructive invaders in the U.S. alone, from kudzu to zebra mussels to the light brown apple moth.
"There appears to be this intrinsic variability, even in the simplest ecological settings, that means that difficulty in prediction is a basic feature of ecological systems," said Hastings, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy.
Hastings is currently a principal investigator or co-investigator on four grants totaling more than $1 million. These studies range from researching the dynamics of salmon and cod populations to species' response to global climate change.
Hastings' collaborator and co-author Brett Melbourne was previously a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis, and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
If invasion forecasts are to improve, Melbourne said, ecologists will have to keep trying to quantify the randomness in environmental and biological processes. "Ecological forecasts will become more like weather forecasts, with a stated range of probability but not certainty, like when the meteorologist says there is a 75 percent chance of rain on Thursday."
The study, "Highly Variable Spread Rates in Replicated Biological Invasions: Fundamental Limits to Predictability," is online at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/325/5947/1536.
It was funded by the National Science Foundation.
University of California - Davis
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Invasion Ecology by Julie Lockwood (Author), Martha Hoopes (Author), Michael Marchetti (Author) This book provides a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of biological invasion by non-native species. Highlighting important research findings associated with each stage of invasion, Invasion Ecology provides an overview of the invasion process from transportation patterns and causes of establishment success to ecological impacts, invader management, and post-invasion evolution. Increasing awareness of the problems associated with invasion has led to a rapid growth in research into the dynamics of non-native species and their adverse effects on native biota and human economies. This book provides a synthesis of this fast growing field of research, and is an essential text for undergraduate and graduate students in ecology and conservation management. |
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Biological Invasions (Ecological Studies) by Wolfgang Nentwig (Editor) This new volume on 'Biological Invasions' deals with both plants and animals, differing from previous books by extending from the species to an ecosystem and global level. Its 22 chapters cover pathways of biological invasions (e.g. ballast water, waterways), traits of successful invaders (e.g. chemical weapons, empty niches), patterns of invasion and invasibility (e.g. man-induced predisposition by fire, land use and eutrophication, the role of climate change) as well as ecological impacts (e.g. food web shifts, genetic pollution), economy and socio-economy (e.g. ecosystem services and monetary valuation), and prevention and management of biological invasions (e.g. phytosanitary measures, biological control, particularly in view of globalisation). Topics of highest societal relevance,... |
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Biological Invasions (Population and Community Biology Series) by M. Williamson (Author) Some biological invasions have marked ecological and economic effects. But most fail, and most of those that succeed have small effects. This book is based on sound analyses, with many illustrative examples, of the causes of success and failure in invasions, and of the consequences of those that succeed. |
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Biological Invasions in Marine Ecosystems: Ecological, Management, and Geographic Perspectives (Ecological Studies) by Gil Rilov (Editor), Jeffrey A. Crooks (Editor) Biological invasions are considered to be one of the greatest threats to the integrity of most ecosystems on earth. This volume explores the current state of marine bioinvasions, which have been growing at an exponential rate over recent decades. Focusing on the ecological aspects of biological invasions, it elucidates the different stages of an invasion process, starting with uptake and transport, through inoculation, establishment and finally integration into new ecosystems. Basic ecological concepts - all in the context of bioinvasions - are covered, such as propagule pressure, species interactions, phenotypic plasticity, and the importance of biodiversity. The authors approach bioinvasions as hazards to the integrity of natural communities, but also as a tool for better... |
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The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants by Charles S. Elton (Author) Much as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was a call to action against the pesticides that were devastating bird populations, Charles S. Elton's classic The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants sounded an early warning about an environmental catastrophe that has become all too familiar today—the invasion of nonnative species. From kudzu to zebra mussels to Asian long-horned beetles, nonnative species are colonizing new habitats around the world at an alarming rate thanks to accidental and intentional human intervention. One of the leading causes of extinctions of native animals and plants, invasive species also wreak severe economic havoc, causing $79 billion worth of damage in the United States alone. Elton explains the devastating effects that invasive species can have on... |
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Biological Invasions in the Hudson River Basin (New York State Museum circular) by Mark D. Scheuerell (Author), Edward L. Mills (Author), James T. Carlton (Author), David L. Strayer (Author) The Hudson River is the most studied freshwater drainage in North America. It supports a diverse community of freshwater, estuarine and marine species. Exotic species constitute one of the most serious threats to indigenous biota-including that of the Hudson River. This volume examines the history of introductions in the basin, presents information on over 100 species of animals and plants, and reviews the problems associated with introductions. Bibliography is extensive. |
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Invasion Biology (Oxford Biology) by Mark A. Davis (Author) With the exception of climate change, biological invasions have probably received more attention during the past ten years than any other ecological topic. Yet this is the first synthetic, single-authored overview of the field since Williamson's 1996 book. Written fifty years after the publication of Elton's pioneering monograph on the subject, Invasion Biology provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the science of biological invasions while also offering new insights and perspectives relating to the processes of introduction, establishment, and spread. The book connects science with application by describing the health, economic, and ecological impacts of invasive species as well as the variety of management strategies developed to mitigate harmful impacts. The author... |
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Conceptual Ecology and Invasion Biology: Reciprocal Approaches to Nature (Invading Nature - Springer Series in Invasion Ecology) by Marc W. Cadotte (Editor), Sean M. McMahon (Editor), Tadashi Fukami (Editor) The conservation threat represented by invasive species is well-known, but the scientific opportunities are underappreciated. Invasion studies have historically been largely directed at the important job of collecting case studies. Invasion biology has matured to the point of being able to incorporating itself into the heart of ecology, and should be viewed as extensions or critical experiments of ecological theory. In this edited volume, global experts in ecology and evolutionary biology explore how theories in ecology elucidate the invasion processes while also examining how specific invasions informs ecological theory. This reciprocal benefit is highlighted in a number of scales of organization: population, community and biogeographic, while employing example invaders in all... |
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Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion by Alan Burdick (Author) Now as never before, exotic animals and plants are crossing the globe, borne on the swelling tide of human traffic to places where nature never intended them to be. Bird-eating snakes hitchhike to Hawaii in the landing gear of airliners; pernicious European zebra mussels, riding in ships’ ballast water, disrupt aquatic ecosystems across the United States; feral camels and poisonous foreign toads plague Australia; giant Indonesian pythons lurk beneath homes in suburban Miami. As alien species jump from place to place and increasingly crowd native and endangered species out of existence, biologists speak fearfully of “the homogenization of the world.” Never mind bulldozers and pesticides: the fastestgrowing threat to biological diversity may be nature itself. Out of Eden is a... |
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