Searching for Research: Lack of species-specific information on effects of climate change on invasives
Summary
There are a lot of invasive species across terrestrial and aquatic environments. Ideally, we would have specific scientific information about how individual species are responding to climate change and projections of how their distribution and impact might shift with climate change. However, species-specific information is often lacking. Gervais et al. (2020) sought to assess how much our science lags desired species-specific information. They created a list of 398 aquatic and terrestrial invasive species that are now present or a major threat to ecosystems in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and parts of western Canada. Pacific Northwest ecosystems share many commonalities in climate with the Northeast, making the set of priority species (in Table S1) also relevant to northeastern managers. Gervais et al. found that very few (15) studies have been conducted on the observed effects of climate change on invasive species and those studies focused on only five of the 398 priority species. Additionally, Gervais et al. found model projection information for only 30 of the 398 priority species (although they missed the terrestrial plant projections presented in Allen & Bradley 2016). This analysis is likely representative of our larger body of knowledge of observed and projected interactions between invasive species and climate change. Thus, managers must continue to make inferences from more general observed and projected interactions to inform species-specific management action.
Take home points
Observations of the effects of climate change on invasive species are rare across taxa and habitat type
Projections of potential effects of climate change on invasive species are more common, particularly for terrestrial plants (e.g., Allen & Bradley 2016)
Create ways to regularly talk to neighbors to your south to learn how management practices need to adapt to climate change and which range-shifting species to watch for.
Build horizon scanning for range-shifting invasives, problem neonatives, and potential sleeper species into regular practice
Management implications
For most invasive species, we probably don’t yet know whether they are actually shifting due to climate change so we have to rely on general trends from existing models to make our best guess
Due to climatic similarities between the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast, priority invasive species identified in this paper (Table S1) may also be of concern to managers in the Northeast
Keywords
Range Expansion, Invasive Species, Climate Change, Terrestrial Aquatic, Pacific Northwest