Losing Stream in Our Battle to Predict and Prevent Invasive
Species Invasive species -- plants, animals, and microbes
introduced to regions beyond their native range -- carry a
global price tag of $1.4 trillion dollars. They are responsible
for the loss of natural resources and biodiversity, damages to
infrastructure, and an uptick in infectious diseases. Not all
non-native species pose a threat. Scientists around the world
have spent the last several decades teasing apart the conditions
that set the stage for debilitating invaders, like giant
hogweed, zebra mussels, or gray squirrels. A number of
hypotheses have emerged to help predict how natural areas will
respond to introduced plants, animals, and microbes. An analysis
of 371 invasion studies using six dominant invasion hypotheses
has revealed their predictive power is weakening. The paper's
authors -- Jonathan Jeschke, Lorena Gómez Aparicio, Sylvia
Haider, Tina Heger, Christopher Lortie, Petr Pyšek, and David
Strayer -- found empirical support for all si