Envisioning a national invasive species information framework

Four Invasive Plant Species in Southwest Saudi Arabia Have Variable Effects on Soil Dynamics

Predicting the direction and magnitude of change in soil dynamics caused by invasive plant species has proven to be difficult because these changes are often reported to be species- and habitat-specific. This study was conducted to determine changes in three soil properties, eight soil ions, and seven soil microelements under established stands of four invasive plants, Prosopis juliflora, Ipomoea carnea, Leucaena leucocephala, and Opuntia ficus-indica. Soil properties, ions, and microelements were measured in sites invaded by these four species in southwest Saudi Arabia, and these values were compared to the results for the same 18 parameters from adjacent sites with native vegetation. Because this study was conducted in an arid ecosystem, we predict that these four invasive plants will significantly alter the soil properties, ions, and microelements in the areas they invaded. While the soils of sites with the four invasive plant species generally had higher values for soil properties and ions compared to sites with native vegetation, in most instances these differences were not statistically significant. However, the soils within sites invaded by I. carnea, L. leucocephala, and P. juliflora had statistically significant differences for some soil parameters. For sites invaded by O. puntia ficus-indica, no soil properties, ions, or microelements were significantly different compared to adjacent sites with native vegetation. Sites invaded by the four plant species generally exhibited differences in the 11 soil properties, but in no instance were these differences statistically significant. All three soil properties and one soil ion (Ca) were significantly different across the four stands of native vegetation. For the seven soil microelements, significantly different values were detected for Co and Ni, but only among stands of the four invasive plant species. These results indicate that the four invasive plant species altered soil properties, ions, and microelements, but for most of the parameters we assessed, not significantly. Our results do not support our initial prediction, but are in general agreement with previous published findings, which indicate that the effects of invasive plants on soil dynamics vary idiosyncratically among invasive species and among invaded habitats.

AIS explorer: Prioritization for watercraft inspections-A decision-support tool for aquatic invasive species management

Invasions of aquatic invasive species have caused significant economic and ecological damage to global aquatic ecosystems. Once an invasive population has established in a new habitat, eradication can be financially and logistically impossible, motivating management strategies to rely heavily upon prevention measures to reduce the introduction and spread. To be productive, on-the-ground management of aquatic invasive species requires effective decision-making surrounding the allocation of limited resources. Watercraft inspections play an important role in managing aquatic invasive species by preventing the overland transport of invasive species between waterbodies and providing education to boaters. In this study, we developed and tested an interactive web-based decision-support tool, AIS Explorer: Prioritization for Watercraft Inspections, to guide AIS managers in developing efficient watercraft inspection plans. The decision-support tool is informed by a network-based algorithm that maximized the number of inspected watercraft that move from AIS infested to uninfested lakes within and between counties in Minnesota, USA. It was iteratively built with stakeholder feedback, including consultations with county managers, beta-testing of the web-based application, and workshops to educate and train end-users. The co-development and implementation of data-driven decision support tools demonstrate how interdisciplinary methods can be used to connect science and management to support decision-making. The AIS Explorer: Prioritization for Watercraft Inspections application makes optimized research outputs accessible in multiple dynamic forms that maintain pace with discovery of new infestations and local needs. In addition, the decision support tool has supported improved and closer communication between AIS managers and researchers on this topic.

A framework to integrate innovations in invasion science for proactive management

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a rising threat to biodiversity, national security, and regional economies, with impacts in the hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars annually. Proactive or predictive approaches guided by scientific knowledge are essential to keeping pace with growing impacts of invasions under climate change. Although the rapid development of diverse technologies and approaches has produced tools with the potential to greatly accelerate invasion research and management, innovation has far outpaced implementation and coordination. Technological and methodological syntheses are urgently needed to close the growing implementation gap and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and synergy among evolving disciplines. A broad review is necessary to demonstrate the utility and relevance of work in diverse fields to generate actionable science for the ongoing invasion crisis. Here, we review such advances in relevant fields including remote sensing, epidemiology, big data analytics, environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling, genomics, and others, and present a generalized framework for distilling existing and emerging data into products for proactive IAS research and management. This integrated workflow provides a pathway for scientists and practitioners in diverse disciplines to contribute to applied invasion biology in a coordinated, synergistic, and scalable manner.

A review of invasive species reporting apps for citizen science and opportunities for innovation

Smartphone apps have enhanced the potential for monitoring of invasive alien species (IAS) through citizen science. They now have the capacity to massively increase the volume and spatiotemporal coverage of IAS occurrence data accrued in centralised databases. While more reporting apps are developed each year, innovation across diverse functionalities and data management in this field are occurring separately and simultaneously amongst numerous research groups with little attention to trends, priorities and opportunities for improvement. This creates the risk of duplication of effort and missed opportunities for implementing new and existing functionalities that would directly benefit IAS research and management. Using a literature search of Early Detection and Rapid Response implementation, smartphone app development and invasive species reporting apps, we developed a rubric for quantitatively assessing the functionality of IAS reporting apps and applied this rubric to 41 free, English-language IAS reporting apps, available via major mobile app stores in North America. The five highest performing apps achieved scores of 61.90% to 66.35% relative to a hypothetical maximum score, indicating that many app features and functionalities, acknowledged to be useful for IAS reporting in literature, are not present in sampled apps. This suggests that current IAS reporting apps do not make use of all available and known functionalities that could maximise their efficacy. Major implementation gaps, highlighted by this rubric analysis, included limited implementation in user engagement (particularly gamification elements and social media compatibility), ancillary information on search effort, detection method, the ability to report absences and local habitat characteristics. The greatest advancement in IAS early detection would likely result from app gamification. This would make IAS reporting more engaging for a growing community of non-professional contributors and encourage frequent and prolonged participation. We discuss these implementation gaps in relation to the increasingly urgent need for Early Detection and Rapid Response frameworks. We also recommend future innovations in IAS reporting app development to help slow the spread of IAS and curb the global economic and biodiversity extinction crises. We also suggest that further funding and investment in this and other implementation gaps could greatly increase the efficacy of current IAS reporting apps and increase their contributions to addressing the contemporary biological invasion threat.

Testing a Generalizable Machine Learning Workflow for Aquatic Invasive Species on Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Northwest Montana

Biological invasions are accelerating worldwide, causing major ecological and economic impacts in aquatic ecosystems. The urgent decision-making needs of invasive species managers can be better met by the integration of biodiversity big data with large-domain models and data-driven products. Remotely sensed data products can be combined with existing invasive species occurrence data via machine learning models to provide the proactive spatial risk analysis necessary for implementing coordinated and agile management paradigms across large scales. We present a workflow that generates rapid spatial risk assessments on aquatic invasive species using occurrence data, spatially explicit environmental data, and an ensemble approach to species distribution modeling using five machine learning algorithms. For proof of concept and validation, we tested this workflow using extensive spatial and temporal hybridization and occurrence data from a well-studied, ongoing, and climate-driven species invasion in the upper Flathead River system in northwestern Montana, USA. Rainbow Trout (RBT; Oncorhynchus mykiss), an introduced species in the Flathead River basin, compete and readily hybridize with native Westslope Cutthroat Trout (WCT; O. clarkii lewisii), and the spread of RBT individuals and their alleles has been tracked for decades. We used remotely sensed and other geospatial data as key environmental predictors for projecting resultant habitat suitability to geographic space. The ensemble modeling technique yielded high accuracy predictions relative to 30-fold cross-validated datasets (87% 30-fold cross-validated accuracy score). Both top predictors and model performance relative to these predictors matched current understanding of the drivers of RBT invasion and habitat suitability, indicating that temperature is a major factor influencing the spread of invasive RBT and hybridization with native WCT. The congruence between more time-consuming modeling approaches and our rapid machine-learning approach suggest that this workflow could be applied more broadly to provide data-driven management information for early detection of potential invaders.

A benefit-cost analysis framework for prioritization of control programs for well-established invasive alien species

Invasive alien species (IAS) are identified as a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem services. While early detection and control programs to avoid establishments of new alien species can be very cost-effective, control costs for well-established species can be enormous. Many of these well-established species constitute severe or high ecological impact and are thus likely to be included in control programs. However, due to limited funds, we need to prioritize which species to control according to the gains in ecological status and human well-being compared to the costs. Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) provides such a tool but has been hampered by the difficulties in assessing the overall social benefits on the same monetary scale as the control costs. In order to overcome this obstacle, we combine a non-monetary benefit assessment tool with the ecosystem service framework to create a benefit assessment in line with the welfare economic underpinnings of BCA. Our simplified BCA prioritization tool enables us to conduct rapid and cheap appraisals of large numbers of invasive species that the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre has found to cause negative ecological impacts. We demonstrate this application on 30 well-established invasive alien vascular plant species in Norway. Social benefits are calculated and aggregated on a benefit point scale for six impact categories: four types of ecosystem services (supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural), human health and infrastructure impacts. Total benefit points are then compared to the total control costs of programs aiming at eradicating individual IAS across Norway or in selected vulnerable ecosystems. Although there are uncertainties with regards to IAS population size, benefits assessment and control program effectiveness and costs; our simplified BCA tool identified six species associated with robust low cost-benefit ratios in terms of control costs (in million USD) per benefit point. As a large share of public funds for eradication of IAS is currently spent on control programs for other plant species, we recommend that the environmental authorities at all levels use our BCA prioritization tool to increase the social benefits of their limited IAS control budgets. In order to maximize the net social benefits of IAS control programs, environmental valuation studies of their ecosystem service benefits are needed.

Ecological countermeasures for preventing zoonotic disease outbreaks: when ecological restoration is a human health imperative

Ecological restoration should be regarded as a public health service. Unfortunately, the lack of quantitative linkages between environmental and human health has limited recognition of this principle. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic provides the impetus for further discussion. We propose ecological countermeasures as highly targeted, landscape-based interventions to arrest the drivers of land use-induced zoonotic spillover. We provide examples of ecological restoration activities that reduce zoonotic disease risk and a five-point action plan at the human-ecosystem health nexus. In conclusion, we make the case that ecological countermeasures are a tenet of restoration ecology with human health goals.

An Analysis of US State Regulated Weed Lists: A Discordance between Biology and Policy

Weedy and invasive plants threaten our food supply, native biodiversity, and the structure and function of ecosystems. The number and impact of these damaging plants are expected to continue to grow with ongoing global change. Some of the most common policy tools to help mitigate this threat are regulatory weed lists, which limit the importation and movement of listed plant species, but there has never been a comprehensive analysis of plants regulated in the United States. We analyzed US state regulatory lists (e.g., noxious, invasive, prohibited) to evaluate their composition, patterns of listing, congruities with weed distributions, and limitations. In total, 46 states maintain regulatory weed lists that include 3210 total listings of 1249 unique species; 48% of them are introduced, 40% are native, and 12% are not yet found in the United States. Overall, the listed species are not a good reflection of the weeds in each state, and listing appears largely reactive, regulating species after they become widespread. We highlight patterns and incongruities among lists and discuss their implications, especially the large number of regulated species native to the United States.

Three Invasive Tree Species Change Soil Chemistry in Guam Forests

Research Highlights: Established stands of Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit, Spathodea campanulata P. Beauv., and Vitex parviflora Juss. modified soils in Guam’s limestone forests, reducing storage pools of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Background and Objectives: Invasive plants may engineer negative changes in ecosystem properties. This study was conducted to determine changes in soil chemistry following infestations of three problematic tree species on Guam. Materials and Methods: Minerals, metals, and mineralization dynamics were measured in invaded sites and paired sites with biodiverse native tree cover. Results: Most soil properties were significantly changed by long-term infestations of the invasive tree species. The soils within invaded sites exhibited total carbon, total nitrogen, and available phosphorus that were less than native sites. In contrast, the carbon/nitrogen ratio increased for every species-site combination. The other chemical properties were idiosyncratic among the sites and species. Conclusions: Mitigation and restoration activities that include the removal of these trees from project sites may require many years for the below-ground ecosystems to return to their native state. These three invasive trees decrease the ability of Guam soils to sequester recalcitrant forms of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

Putting a federal capacities assessment to work: blueprint for a national program for the early detection of and rapid response to invasive species (EDRR)

This paper responds to national policy directives intended to improve the US government’s capacity to protect national security from the adverse impacts of invasive species. It is the final, synthesizing contribution to a Special Issue of Biological Invasions comprising 12 papers that collectively inform the development and implementation of a national program for the early detection of and rapid response to invasive species (EDRR). The blueprint sets forth policies, goals, and actions to be taken by relevant Executive Branch agencies and components of the Executive Office of the President to develop a national EDRR program, appropriations permitting. It is designed to function as guidance for advancing federal policy through Presidential, Secretarial, and/or Congressional directives. Those committed to protecting national security, the economy, and the well-being of American people are forewarned that our ability to establish a national EDRR program is undermined by the diminishment of the federal workforce; institutional structures, policies, and programs; and directly applicable leadership mechanisms, including the National Invasive Species Council, Invasive Species Advisory Committee, and their managerial Secretariat.

Invasive species watch lists: guidance for development, communication, and application

A watch list is a list of invasive species to be prioritized for surveillance, reporting, and other possible responses in order to reduce the risk of impact to valued assets. Watch lists are basic, yet multi-functional tools for the early detection of and rapid response to invasive species. There is, however, a need to substantially improve watch list standardization, accessibility, and associated communication strategies. We provide guidance to achieve these aims, including an overview of guiding principles and a list of questions to consider when one develops, communicates, and applies invasive species watch lists. Our guidance is intended to support invasive species watch lists development and application globally.

Federal legal authorities: guidance for application to the early detection of and rapid response to invasive species

Federal agency programs and associated actions are contingent on having the legal authority to act. There is no single authority established to direct the early detection of and rapid response to invasive species (EDRR). Rather, a patchwork of authorities unevenly addresses various aspects of the suite of EDRR measures. To support the development of national EDRR capacity, it is essential to delineate the federal legal statutes, regulations, and policies that enable or limit invasive species EDRR. Here we set forth general principles and a checklist of actions that agencies can refer to when they construct a more comprehensive EDRR legal and policy framework for addressing invasive species. This guidance is intended to complement the review and analysis of federal authorities contained elsewhere in this issue (Burgos-Rodríguez and Burgiel in Biol Invasions. 10.1007/s10530-019-02148-w, 2019, this issue).

Capacity of United States federal government and its partners to rapidly and accurately report the identity (taxonomy) of non-native organisms intercepted in early detection programs

The early detection of and rapid response to invasive species (EDRR) depends on accurate and rapid identification of non-native species. The 2016–2018 National Invasive Species Council Management Plan called for an assessment of US government (federal) capacity to report on the identity of non-native organisms intercepted through early detection programs. This paper serves as the response to that action item. Here we summarize survey-based findings and make recommendations for improving the federal government’s capacity to identify non-native species authoritatively in a timely manner. We conclude with recommendations to improve accurate identification within the context of EDRR by increasing coordination, maintaining taxonomic expertise, creating an identification tools clearinghouse, developing and using taxonomic standards for naming and identification protocols, expanding the content of DNA and DNA Barcode libraries, ensuring long-term sustainability of biological collections, and engaging and empowering citizens and citizen science groups.

Technology innovation: advancing capacities for the early detection of and rapid response to invasive species

The 2016–2018National Invasive Species Council (NISC) Management Plan and Executive Order 13751 call for US federal agencies to foster technology development and application to address invasive species and their impacts. This paper complements and draws on an Innovation Summit, review of advanced biotechnologies applicable to invasive species management, and a survey of federal agencies that respond to these high-level directives. We provide an assessment of federal government capacities for the early detection of and rapid response to invasive species (EDRR) through advances in technology application; examples of emerging technologies for the detection, identification, reporting, and response to invasive species; and guidance for fostering further advancements in applicable technologies. Throughout the paper, we provide examples of how federal agencies are applying technologies to improve programmatic effectiveness and cost-efficiencies. We also highlight the outstanding technology-related needs identified by federal agencies to overcome barriers to enacting EDRR. Examples include improvements in research facility infrastructure, data mobilization across a wide range of invasive species parameters (from genetic to landscape scales), promotion of and support for filling key gaps in technological capacity (e.g., portable, field-ready devices with automated capacities), and greater investments in technology prizes and challenge competitions.

The early detection of and rapid response (EDRR) to invasive species: a conceptual framework and federal capacities assessment

Globalization necessitates that we address the negative externalities of international trade and transport, including biological invasion. The US government defines invasive species to mean, “with regard to a particular ecosystem, a non-native organism whose introduction causes, or is likely to cause, economic or environmental harm, or harm to human, animal, or plant health.” Here we address the role of early detection of and rapid response to invasive species (EDRR) in minimizing the impact of invasive species on US interests. We provide a review of EDRR’s usage as a federal policy and planning term, introduce a new conceptual framework for EDRR, and assess US federal capacities for enacting well-coordinated EDRR. Developing a national EDRR program is a worthwhile goal; our assessment nonetheless indicates that the federal government and its partners need to overcome substantial conceptual, institutional, and operational challenges that include establishing clear and consistent terminology use, strategically identifying and communicating agency functions, improving interagency budgeting, facilitating the application of emerging technologies and other resources to support EDRR, and making information relevant to EDRR preparedness and implementation more readily accessible. This paper is the first in a special issue of Biological Invasions that includes 12 complementary papers intended to inform the development and implementation of a national EDRR program.

Instituting a national early detection and rapid response program: needs for building federal risk screening capacity

The invasive species issue is inherently a matter of risk; what is the risk that an invasive species will adversely impact valued assets? The early detection of and rapid response to invasive species (EDRR) requires that an assessment of risk is conducted as rapidly as possible. We define risk screening as rapid characterization of the types and degree of risks posed by a population of non-native species in a particular spatio-temporal context. Risk screening is used to evaluate the degree to which various response measures are warranted and justifiable. In this paper, we evaluate the US government’s risk screening programs with a view towards advancing national EDRR capacity. Our survey-based findings, consistent with prior analyses, indicate that risk evaluation by federal agencies has largely been a reactive, ad hoc process, and there is a need to improve information sharing, risk evaluation tools, and staff capacity for risk screening. We provide an overview of the US Department of Agriculture’s Tiered Weed Risk Evaluation and US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ecological Risk Screening Summaries, two relatively new approaches to invasive species risk screening that hold promise as the basis for future work. We emphasize the need for a clearinghouse of risk evaluation protocols, tools, completed assessments and associated information; development of performance metrics and standardized protocols for risk screening; as well as support for complementary, science-based tools to facilitate and validate risk screening.

Enabling decisions that make a difference: guidance for improving access to and analysis of invasive species information

The issue of how to detect and rapidly respond to invasive species before it is economically infeasible to control them is one of urgency and importance at international, national, and subnational scales. Barriers to sharing invasive species data—whether in the form of policy, culture, technology, or operational logistics—need to be addressed and overcome at all levels. We propose guiding principles for following standards, formats, and protocols to improve information sharing among US invasive species information systems and conclude that existing invasive species information standards are adequate for the facilitation of data sharing among all sectors. Rather than creating a single information-sharing system, there is a need to promote interfaces among existing information systems that will enable them to become inter-operable, to foster simultaneous access, and to deliver any and all relevant information to a particular user or application in a seamless fashion. The actions we propose include implementing a national campaign to mobilize invasive species occurrence data into publicly available information systems; maintaining a current list of invasive species data integrators/clearinghouses; establishing an agreement for sharing data among the primary US invasive species information systems; enhancing the Integrated Taxonomic Information System to fully cover taxonomic groups not yet complete; further developing and hosting data standards for critical aspects of invasive species biology; supporting and maintaining the North American Invasive Species Management Association’s mapping standards; identifying standard metrics for capturing the environmental and socio-economic impact of invasive species, including impacts and management options; continuing to support US engagement in international invasive species data sharing platforms; and continuing US membership in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

The incident command system: a framework for rapid response to biological invasion

The incident command system (ICS) is a framework for organizing and directing on-site, tactical responses to a particular event or series of events. ICS provides a command structure for coordination, information flow, analysis, decision-making, communications, and implementation in an authoritative and standardized manner. The ICS framework has been used for emergency response in a variety of situations where the environment, human health, or other resources are at risk, including wildfires, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, oil and chemical spills, infectious disease outbreaks, and invasive species. This paper outlines the key components of ICS, as well as major elements for building ICS capacity. It concludes with a list of considerations for applying ICS in the invasive species context.

Right place. Right time. Right tool: guidance for using target analysis to increase the likelihood of invasive species detection

In response to the National Invasive Species Council’s 2016–2018 Management Plan, this paper provides guidance on applying target analysis as part of a comprehensive framework for the early detection of and rapid response to invasive species (EDRR). Target analysis is a strategic approach for detecting one or more invasive species at a specific locality and time, using a particular method and/or technology(ies). Target analyses, which are employed across a wide range of disciplines, are intended to increase the likelihood of detection of a known target in order to maximize survey effectiveness and cost-efficiency. Although target analyses are not yet a standard approach to invasive species management, some federal agencies are employing target analyses in principle and/or in part to improve EDRR capacities. These initiatives can provide a foundation for a more standardized and comprehensive approach to target analyses. Guidance is provided for improving computational information. Federal agencies and their partners would benefit from a concerted effort to collect the information necessary to perform rigorous target analyses and make it available through open access platforms.