Abstract
Biological invasions are a global challenge that has received insufficient attention. Recently available cost syntheses have provided policy- and decision makers with reliable and up-to-date information on the economic impacts of biological invasions, aiming to motivate effective management. The resultant InvaCost database is now publicly and freely accessible and enables rapid extraction of monetary cost information. This has facilitated knowledge sharing, developed a more integrated and multidisciplinary network of researchers, and forged multidisciplinary collaborations among diverse organizations and stakeholders. Over 50 scientific publications so far have used the database and have provided detailed assessments of invasion costs across geographic, taxonomic, and spatiotemporal scales. These studies have provided important information that can guide future policy and legislative decisions on the management of biological invasions while simultaneously attracting public and media attention. We provide an overview of the improved availability, reliability, standardization, and defragmentation of monetary costs; discuss how this has enhanced invasion science as a discipline; and outline directions for future development.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 560-574 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | BioScience |
Volume | 73 |
Issue number | 8 |
Early online date | 22 Aug 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Aug 2023 |
Bibliographical note
The InvaCost project was funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR-14-CE02-0021), the BNP-Paribas Foundation Climate Initiative, the AXA Research Fund Chair of Invasion Biology of University Paris Saclay and by the BiodivERsA and Belmont-Forum call 2018 on biodiversity scenarios (AlienScenarios; BMBF/PT DLR 01LC1807C). DAA received funding from Gulf University of Science and Technology (GUST). MK received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research program under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement 899546. CJAB acknowledges the Australian Research Council (grant no. CE170100015) for support. RNC is funded by the Leverhulme Trust (grant no. ECF-2021-001). AB acknowledges Azim Premji University's grants program (grant no. UNIV-RC00326) for support. GH was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (Capes)—(001) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. All data presented are available via the invacost R package. Related code and supplementary data available at github.com/cjabradshaw/InvaCostVersionTrends .Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
Keywords
- economic impacts
- environmental management
- guiding policy
- InvaCost
- invasive alien species