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No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide.

ABSTRACT: Although research on human-mediated exchanges of species has substantially intensified during the last centuries, we know surprisingly little about temporal dynamics of alien species accumulations across regions and taxa. Using a novel database of 45,813 first records of 16,926 established alien species, we show that the annual rate of first records worldwide has increased during the last 200 years, with 37% of all first records reported most recently (1970-2014). Inter-continental and inter-taxonomic variation can be largely attributed to the diaspora of European settlers in the nineteenth century and to the acceleration in trade in the twentieth century. For all taxonomic groups, the increase in numbers of alien species does not show any sign of saturation and most taxa even show increases in the rate of first records over time. This highlights that past efforts to mitigate invasions have not been effective enough to keep up with increasing globalization.

SUBMITTER: Seebens H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5316856 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide.

Seebens Hanno H Blackburn Tim M TM Dyer Ellie E EE Genovesi Piero P Hulme Philip E PE Jeschke Jonathan M JM Pagad Shyama S Pyšek Petr P Winter Marten M Arianoutsou Margarita M Bacher Sven S Blasius Bernd B Brundu Giuseppe G Capinha César C Celesti-Grapow Laura L Dawson Wayne W Dullinger Stefan S Fuentes Nicol N Jäger Heinke H Kartesz John J Kenis Marc M Kreft Holger H Kühn Ingolf I Lenzner Bernd B Liebhold Andrew A Mosena Alexander A Moser Dietmar D Nishino Misako M Pearman David D Pergl Jan J Rabitsch Wolfgang W Rojas-Sandoval Julissa J Roques Alain A Rorke Stephanie S Rossinelli Silvia S Roy Helen E HE Scalera Riccardo R Schindler Stefan S Štajerová Kateřina K Tokarska-Guzik Barbara B van Kleunen Mark M Walker Kevin K Weigelt Patrick P Yamanaka Takehiko T Essl Franz F

Nature communications 20170215

Although research on human-mediated exchanges of species has substantially intensified during the last centuries, we know surprisingly little about temporal dynamics of alien species accumulations across regions and taxa. Using a novel database of 45,813 first records of 16,926 established alien species, we show that the annual rate of first records worldwide has increased during the last 200 years, with 37% of all first records reported most recently (1970-2014). Inter-continental and inter-tax ...[more]

PMID: 28198420

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Project description:Alien species often flourish and become invasive in urban ecosystems. How and why invaders succeed in urban systems is an important, yet poorly understood, question. We investigate whether the success of urban invaders is related to changes in species traits that enhance invasive potential. We also explore whether a trophic mechanism helps explain the success of invaders in urban systems. We use the guppy Poecilia reticulata, a globally distributed alien species that has invaded both urban and non-urban systems, as our model. We first characterize the effect of urbanization on streams where guppies are present. We measure guppy invasion success using their population density and size-frequency. Then we assess how traits that are related to the potential of guppies to invade (life history and condition) respond to urbanization. Next, we explore how urbanization affects the availability of food for guppies and their diets. We also test if the presence of other fish species grants biological resistance to invasion by dampening guppy invasive potential. We find that urban streams have high concentrations of ammonium and faecal coliforms, indicating contamination from sewage. On average, guppy populations from urban streams have 26× higher density and larger body sizes than non-urban populations. Urban guppies are in better condition and have on average five more offspring than non-urban guppies. Urbanization increases the availability and consumption of highly nutritious food (chironomid larvae) by guppies. We find a positive relationship between the consumption of chironomids and both fecundity and condition. The presence of other fish species in urban streams often has a negative but small effect on guppy traits and density. Our data suggest a relaxation of trade-offs that shape life-history traits which is related to increased food resources in urban streams. These indicate that urbanization enhances the invasive potential of guppies through a trophic mechanism that simultaneously increases reproduction and somatic investment. Such mechanism is likely widespread because chironomids are often highly abundant in urban systems. Thus, not only guppies but also other invasive species can take advantage of such a resource to invest in traits that enhance invasion success.

Dataset Information

No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide.

Publications

No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide.

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