Disentangling the role of environmental and human pressures on biological invasions across Europe — PNAS

Disentangling the role of environmental and human pressures on biological invasions across Europe

Petr Pyšeka,b,1, Vojtěch Jarošíka,b, Philip E. Hulmec, Ingolf Kühnd, Jan Wilda, Margarita Arianoutsoue, Sven Bacherf, Francois Chirong, Viktoras Didžiulish, Franz Essli, Piero Genovesij, Francesca Gherardik, Martin Hejdaa, Salit Karkl, Philip W. Lambdonm, Marie-Laure Desprez-Loustaun, Wolfgang Nentwigo, Jan Pergla, Katja Poboljšajp, Wolfgang Rabitschi, Alain Roquesq, David B. Royr, Susan Shirleys, Wojciech Solarzt, Montserrat Vilàu, and Marten Winterd,f
+ Author Affiliations

aInstitute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-252 43 Průhonice, Czech Republic;
bDepartment of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, CZ-128 01 Prague 2, Czech Republic;
cBio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, 7647 Christchurch, New Zealand;
dHelmholtz Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ, Department of Community Ecology, D-06120 Halle, Germany;
eDepartment of Ecology and Systematics, Faculty of Biology, University of Athens, 15784 Athens, Greece;
fEcology and Evolution Unit, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland;
gMuséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Unité Mixte de Recherches 7204, Conservation des Espèces, Restauration et Suivi des Populations, 75005 Paris, France;
hCoastal Research and Planning Institute, Klaipeda University, LT92294, Klaipeda, Lithuania;
iFederal Environment Agency, Department of Biodiversity and Nature Conservation, A-1090 Vienna, Austria;
jInstitute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), 4004 Ozzano Emilia BO, Italy;
kDipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica, Università di Firenze, Florence, Italy;
lBiodiversity Research Group, Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel;
mGlobal Programmes Department, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, United Kingdom;
nInstitut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Unité Mixte de Recherches 1202 Biodiversité, Gènes et Communautés (BIOGECO), Pathologie Forestière, 33140 Villenave d'Ornon, France;
oInstitute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland;
pCentre for Cartography of Fauna and Flora, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia;
qInstitut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Unité de Recherches 0633, Zoologie Forestière, 45075 Orléans, France;
rNatural Environment Research Council Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8BB, United Kingdom;
sDepartment of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331;
tInstitute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL-31-120, Krakow, Poland; and
uEstación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), E-41092 Sevilla, Spain
Edited* by Harold A. Mooney, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved May 17, 2010 (received for review February 24, 2010)

Abstract
The accelerating rates of international trade, travel, and transport in the latter half of the twentieth century have led to the progressive mixing of biota from across the world and the number of species introduced to new regions continues to increase. The importance of biogeographic, climatic, economic, and demographic factors as drivers of this trend is increasingly being realized but as yet there is no consensus regarding their relative importance. Whereas little may be done to mitigate the effects of geography and climate on invasions, a wider range of options may exist to moderate the impacts of economic and demographic drivers. Here we use the most recent data available from Europe to partition between macroecological, economic, and demographic variables the variation in alien species richness of bryophytes, fungi, vascular plants, terrestrial insects, aquatic invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Only national wealth and human population density were statistically significant predictors in the majority of models when analyzed jointly with climate, geography, and land cover. The economic and demographic variables reflect the intensity of human activities and integrate the effect of factors that directly determine the outcome of invasion such as propagule pressure, pathways of introduction, eutrophication, and the intensity of anthropogenic disturbance. The strong influence of economic and demographic variables on the levels of invasion by alien species demonstrates that future solutions to the problem of biological invasions at a national scale lie in mitigating the negative environmental consequences of human activities that generate wealth and by promoting more sustainable population growth.

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Disentangling the role of environmental and human pressures on biological invasions across Europe — PNAS