1st, October, 2020 - University College, London - Research led by an international team in conjunction with the University College, London discussed how they've predicted there to be a 36% increase in invasive alien species by 2050 in comparison to 2005.
There is significant correlation between the level of a nations GDP and the abundance of invasive species due to improvement in transport, infrastructure etc. It's expected that Europe will see the highest invasion in biological invasions with the predicted arrival of 2,500 species which will be a 64% increase.
The research team led by the German Senckenberg biodiversity and Climate Research Centre believe it's possible to slow down these rapid introductions with more strict biosecurity measures taking place.
Invasive species have been an issue in Europe for the past 11 decades, however, enhancement in trapping methods have plateaued where kill traps and mark and recapture methods commonly being deployed. There is a large inventory of invasive species data available for island populations, however, this is not the case for mainland populations. Mainland populations are more complicated due to higher potentials of dispersal and information will be vital.
The best time to put controls into place is during the early stages before these populations expand and disperse. Constant surveillance using meta genomics would be a useful tool where it will help detect early introduction where the intensity of invasion is low and will help understand pathway patterns.
This study has used a model with great variations between different regions where the largest increase predicted to be in Europe due to their connectivity to many other continent, high GDP, poor border control, strong political relationships with other high GDP nations etc. Australia have been estimated to seeing the lowest increase due to strong border controls and their dis connectivity from other nations.
References
Tim M Blackburn, Céline Bellard and Anthony Ricciardi. Alien versus native species as drivers of recent extinctions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2019 DOI: 10.1002/fee.2020
