Invasive Species May Have Spread More with the Help of Europeans

Europeans may have unknowingly helped the spread of an invasive plant species in the United States. Researchers have found that human-caused factors are far more important to the spread of an invasive species than the traits that the species may possess.

Invasive species that spread widely can have detrimental impacts on ecosystems and can even threaten biodiversity. They can also cause massive economic damage to agriculture and forestry. Once a species has been naturalized, it can often no longer be fully controlled-even after considerable efforts. Yet most invasive species have become naturalized in their new home range with the help of humans.

Many species have arrived in other parts of the world with the help of humans. More specifically, Europeans have brought many species to North America; intensive trade between the two continents in the last 500 years has led to one of the largest processes of species exchange.

In this latest study, the researchers developed a model that describes the invasion process of Central European plant species in the U.S. and Canada in terms of different drivers, showing just how efficient certain factors are as drivers of invasion.

So what did they find? In the end, it turns out that biological traits aren't as important as geographic or anthropogenic factors.

"These new results from North America confirm the results that were reported for Europe two years ago: socioeconomic factors and thus the influence of humans have a stronger influence on invasion processes than the biological traits of species," said Ingolf Kuhn, one of the researchers, in a news release. "One of our most important messages is therefore that studies on invasive species, which do not take into account the characteristics of the native range or residence time in the invaded range, may seriously overestimate the role of biological traits."

The findings are published in the journal Ecology.

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