Biotic Invasion: A Global Perspective and Ecology of Invasion: Patterns and Perspectives

Interest in biotic invasions has grown as the entry, spread and proliferation of organisms beyond their native ranges is accelerating world-wide. The study of invasions can make use of these natural experiments for better understanding community composition changes, the rate and character of natural selection, genetic drift, and coevolution. Biotic invasions are part of the global change caused by man; in many cases they have created one or more serious environmental alterations: the loss of biodiversity, radical changes in the abundance and roles of native species, and attendant economic consequences, e.g. increased erosion, fire, and flooding. Papers were presented under six overlapping and interconnected categories: 1) assessment of invaders' new ranges and status, 2) characterization of invaders or their habitat, or both, 3) attempts to identify correlations among invaders, their habitats, or both, 4) experimental approaches to invasion, 5) modeling invasions, and 6) the prevention and control of invaders. The presentations ranged along multiple research fronts dealing with a taxonomically-diverse group of invaders world-wide. The characterization of invaders, assessment of their new ranges, and correlation are being now augmented through experimentation and modeling. Together these approaches are yielding results that unravel invasion processes while at the same time providing insights into the control of invaders.