Global networks of observers help to understand and manage plant invasions

Background/Question/Methods

Biological invasions are a growing component of global change with ecological and economic consequences that are difficult to quantify. Although many advances have been made understanding plant invasions, still global generalities have been elusive. At the same time, management of plant invasions has shown to be a much more difficult task than expected. Local differences including biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic components create a complex scenario for plant invasion ecology and management, where local studies cannot be generalized globally. In response to the search of generalities in invasion plant ecology, networks of researchers, managers and citizens may provide important information with a much larger scope than previous single-site studies. In this presentation, I review several initiatives that use data on plant invasions collected by multiple observers across continents. I highlight the potential benefits and the constraints of such approaches and use the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) as an example of a non-centralized research network.

Results/Conclusions

Recently, a number of initiatives are using data collected at a local scale to produce global scale results. Data can be collected by observers or can be borrowed from multiple sources of plant data such as herbariums, national databases and publications. Interesting insights on invasion processes have been achieved using records of native and non-native plants globally and across regions with similar climates. Global observers’ networks now offer the opportunity to collect new data using standardized simple protocols across regions. MIREN is using a plant survey method across mountains in 11 regions of the world to understand how plant invasions respond to multiple climatic, elevational and disturbance gradients. MIREN has found that most mountain plant invaders are generalist species that go up elevational gradients from lowland sources using roads as corridors. Therefore, although mountains share very similar climates, non-native species assemblages tend to be more similar to their lowland assemblages than to other mountain regions. This knowledge is informing managers to better take preventive measures to control invasive species. However, differences in research funding and capacities across regions and differences in awareness among managers, especially in less developed countries, may limit the potential of these networks to carry on global studies. Education and outreach may help to level these differences, but to maintain these networks on the long term, there needs to be a clear benefit for both researchers and managers to join these networks. AP funded by Iniciativa Científica Milenio P05-002 and CONICYT PFB-23.