The North American Great Lakes have been invaded and dramatically altered by more than 145 alien species. Many invasions have occurred during the past few decades because of the release of Eurasian ballast water from transoceanic ships. Current regulations require ships to exchange foreign ballast with highly saline water before entering the Great Lakes; this procedure should prevent colonizati...

Identification of factors that drive changes in plant community structure and contribute to decline and endangerment of native plant species is essential to the development of appropriate management strategies. Introduced species are assumed to be driving causes of shifts in native plant communities, but unequivocal evidence supporting this view is frequently lacking. We measured native vegetat...

Biological invasions are increasingly frequent and have dramatic ecological and economic consequences. A key to coping with invasive species is our ability to predict their rates of spread. Traditional models of biological invasions assume that the environment is temporally constant. We examine the consequences for invasion speed of periodic and stochastic fluctuations in population growth rate...

Biological invasions are increasingly frequent and have dramatic ecological and economic consequences. A key to coping with invasive species is our ability to predict their rates of spread. Traditional models of biological invasions assume that the environment is temporally constant. We examine the consequences for invasion speed of periodic and stochastic £uctuations in population growth rates...

An invasive species is one that arrives (oftenwith human assistance) in a habitat it had not previously occupied, then establishes a population and spreads autonomously. Species invasions are one of the main conservation threats today and have caused many species extinctions. The great majority of such invasions are by species introduced from elsewhere, although some native species have become ...

*Correspondence: Qinfeng Guo, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, 200 WT Weaver Blvd., Asheville, NC 28804, USA e-mail: [email protected] The species’ range limits and associated central-marginal (C-M, i.e., from species range center to margin) population dynamics continue to draw increasing attention because of thei...

Zebra mussels (ZMs) (Dreissena polymorpha) and Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM) (Myriophyllum spicatum) are aggressive aquatic invasive species posing a conservation burden on Minnesota. Recognizing areas at high risk for invasion is a prerequisite for the implementation of risk-based prevention and mitigation management strategies. The early detection of invasion has been challenging, due in part t...

Despite biological invasions being a worldwide phenomenon causing significant ecological, economic, and human welfare impacts, there is limited understanding regarding how environmental managers perceive the problem and subsequently manage alien species. Spanish environmental managers were surveyed using questionnaires to (1) analyze the extent to which they perceive plant invasions as a proble...

There have been many studies of the diverse impacts of invasions by alien plants but few have assessed impacts on water resources. We reviewed the information on the impacts of invasions on surface runoff and groundwater resources at stand to catchment scales and covering a full annual cycle. Most of the research is South African so the emphasis is on South Africa's major invaders with data fro...

B iological invasions occur when organisms are transported and become established in a new range in which they persist, proliferate, and spread (1). The negative consequences of invasions include loss of native biological diversity and community structure (and in extreme cases, the extinction of native species) (2); modification of ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and productivity p...