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Temporal and interspecific variation in rates of spread for insect species invading Europe during the last 200 years

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Abstract

Globalization is triggering an increase in the establishment of alien insects in Europe, with several species having substantial ecological and economic impacts. We investigated long-term changes in rates of species spread following establishment. We used the total area of countries invaded by 1171 insect species for which the date of first record in Europe is known, to estimate their current range radius (calculated as [invaded area]0.5/π). We estimated initial rates of radial spread and compared them among different groups of insects for all years (1800–2014) and for a subset of more recent decades (1950–2014). Accidentally introduced species spread faster than intentionally introduced species. Considering the whole period 1800–2014, spread patterns also differ between feeding guilds, with decreasing spread rates over residence time in herbivores but not in detritivores or parasitic species. These decreases for herbivorous species appeared mainly in those associated with herbaceous plants and crops rather than woody plants. Initial spread rate was significantly greater for species detected after 1990, roughly 3–4 times higher than for species that arrived earlier. We hypothesize that the political changes in Europe following the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989, and the further dismantling of customs checkpoints within an enlarged European Union (EU) have facilitated the faster spread of alien insect species. Also, the number of species first recorded in the Eastern Bloc of the politically-divided Europe before 1989 was lower than for the rest of Europe. A detailed analysis of six recent invaders indicated a dominant role of long-distance translocations related to human activities, especially with the plant trade, in determining rates of spread.

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Acknowledgments

This paper had its origin at a workshop on “Drivers, impacts, mechanisms and adaptation in insect invasions” hosted and co-funded by the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in November 2014. Additional financial support was provided by HortGro, the National Research Foundation of South Africa, Stellenbosch University, and SubTrop. PP was supported by long-term research development project RVO 67985939 (The Czech Academy of Sciences) and by Praemium Academiae award from The Czech Academy of Sciences. DMR acknowledges support from the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology and the National Research Foundation, South Africa (Grant 85417). We thank Lionel Roques and Samuel Soubeyrand, INRA Avignon, France for fruitful discussions about the statistical methods to be used in order to better exploit the data. The European COST projects Alien Challenge (TD1209) and Global Warning (TD1401) are also acknowledged for their support as well as the regional project INCA funded the French Region Centre.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, UR 0633, Zoologie Forestière, 45075, Orléans, France

    Alain Roques & Marie-Anne Auger-Rozenberg

  2. Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Tim M. Blackburn

  3. Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa

    Jeff Garnas

  4. Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa

    Jeff Garnas & Michael J. Wingfield

  5. Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, 25243, Průhonice, Czech Republic

    Petr Pyšek

  6. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, 12844, Prague 2, Czech Republic

    Petr Pyšek

  7. Environment Agency Austria, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang Rabitsch

  8. Department of Botany and Zoology, Centre for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, 7602, South Africa

    David M. Richardson

  9. US Forest Service Northern Research Station, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA

    Andrew M. Liebhold

  10. Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Richard P. Duncan

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  1. Alain Roques
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  2. Marie-Anne Auger-Rozenberg
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  3. Tim M. Blackburn
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  4. Jeff Garnas
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Correspondence to Alain Roques.

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Guest editors: Matthew P. Hill, Susana Clusella-Trullas, John S. Terblanche & David M. Richardson / Insect Invasions

Electronic supplementary material

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10530_2016_1080_MOESM1_ESM.xlsx

Supplementary material S1. List of the 1171 alien insect species for which the date of first record in Europe was known, including taxonomic details (insect order), date of first record in Europe, total surface invaded in Europe by 2014, intentionnality of the introduction (I: Intentionnal; U:Unintentionnal), feeding regime (DET: Detrivorous species; PAR: Parasites and Predators; PHY: Phytophagous species), and type of host plants for phytophagous species (W: woody plants and woody material; NW: herbaceaous plants and crops). (XLSX 99 kb)

10530_2016_1080_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx

Supplementary material S2. List of the 455 alien insect species first recorded in Europe following 1950, and for which the date of first record in every invaded country is known. (XLSX 99 kb)

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Roques, A., Auger-Rozenberg, MA., Blackburn, T.M. et al. Temporal and interspecific variation in rates of spread for insect species invading Europe during the last 200 years. Biol Invasions 18, 907–920 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-016-1080-y

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