| − | [[wikipedia:Invasive_species|Invasive species]] are responsible for the decline or extirpation of many species around the world. When those lost species provide essential ecological functions, the system may further degrade over time. Restoration ecology aims to restore these systems and associated ecological functions. It is important to first understand the invaders and their direct and indirect impacts to the native ecosystems. This requires a thorough understanding of the system and functions pre-invasion. Once these links and mechanisms are understood, managers must decide on a course of action to control or halt the spread of the invasive species and prevent further ecological degradation. Managers must determine what types of control are most appropriate for their systems as well as to what levels an invader must be controlled before restoration actions lead to improved ecological function. Deciding on specific restoration actions will vary considerably from system to system, but must involve considerations such as topography, landcover, feasibility, scale, social impacts, and timing. Specific details about habitats and species natural history are important to incorporate into planning models. Finally, monitoring and adaptive management throughout the course of the restoration and beyond are crucial to long-term success.
| + | As the global climate continues to warm, changes in local climate conditions put populations of many species at risk of severe decline and even extinction. Predicting which species are most vulnerable to changing conditions is challenging, because climate interacts different life stages in complex ways. Population models allow natural resource managers to integrate the effects of climate across life stages and provide a powerful tool to inform management decisions. However, care must be taken to match model structure to a species’ biology and recognize the limitations of the data used to parameterize models when interpreting predictions. |
| − | ==Introduction- Invasion Biology==
| + | * Quantitative Conservation Biology<ref>Morris, W.F., and Doak, D.F., 2002. Quantitative Conservation Biology: Theory and Practice of Population Viability Analysis. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publishers, Sunderland, Massachusetts, USA.ISBN: 978-087893546-8</ref> |
| − | Because of the increased ease and frequency of transportation of people and goods across the globe, almost all ecosystems species introduced by humans that do not share an evolutionary history with the native members of the ecosystem. Only some of these species survive to reproduce, and even fewer cause harm<ref> Williamson, M., and Fitter, A.,1996. The Varying Success of Invaders. Ecology, 77(6), pp. 1661–1666. [https://doi.org/10.2307/2265769 doi:10.2307/2265769]</ref>. [[wikipedia:Invasive_species|Invasive species]] are recognized as having been transported to a novel geographic area, establishing in that area, and then causing ecological or economic harm to the systems in that geographic region<ref>Blackburn, T.M., Pyšek, P., Bacher, S., Carlton, J.T., Duncan, R.P., Jarošík, V., Wilson, J.R., and Richardson, D.M., 2011. A proposed unified framework for biological invasions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 26(7), pp. 333–339. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.03.023 doi:10.1016/j.tree.2011.03.023]</ref><ref>Kraus, F., 2009. Alien Reptiles and Amphibians: A Scientific Compendium and Analysis. Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands. ISBN: 978-1-4020-8945-9/eISBN: 978-1-4020-8946-6 [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8946-6 doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8946-6]</ref><ref>Kraus, F., 2015. Impacts from Invasive Reptiles and Amphibians. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 46(1), pp. 75–97. [https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054450 doi:10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054450]</ref>). Several attempts have been made by researchers in the field to distinguish “invasive” from “non-native,” “alien” and “exotic”<ref>Colautti, R.I., and MacIsaac, H.J., 2004. A neutral terminology to define ‘invasive’ species. Diversity and Distributions, 10(2), pp. 135–141. [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1366-9516.2004.00061.x doi:10.1111/j.1366-9516.2004.00061.x] [//www.enviro.wiki/images/5/58/Colautti_2004.pdf Article pdf]</ref><ref>Richardson, D.M., Pyšek, P., Rejmánek, M., Barbour, M.G., Panetta, F.D., and West, C.J., 2000. Naturalization and invasion of alien plants: concepts and definitions. Diversity and Distributions, 6(2), pp. 93–107. [https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1472-4642.2000.00083.x doi: 10.1046/j.1472-4642.2000.00083.x][[Special:FilePath/Richardson2000.pdf| Article pdf]]</ref>). Invasive species were defined in [[Special:FilePath/EO99-13112.pdf| The President's Executive Order 13112]] (1999) as, “an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health”. The Global Invasive Species Program of the [https://www.iucn.org/ International Union for the Conservation of Nature] accepts a similar definition of “invasive alien species” as “This subset of alien species that become established in a new environment, then proliferate and spread in ways that are destructive to native ecosystems, human health, and ultimately human welfare…”<ref>McNeely, J.A., 2000. The future of alien invasive species: changing social views. In: H.A. Mooney and R.J. Hobbs (eds), Invasive Species in a Changing World. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp. 171–190. ISBN: 978-1559637824</ref>. Invasive species are one of the greatest threats to ecological and economic well-being of the planet. Developing common definitions was essential given the prevalence and urgency of the impacts.
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