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Impact assessment revisited: improving the theoretical basis for management of invasive alien species

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Abstract

The theoretical underpinnings of the assessment of invasive alien species impacts need to be improved. At present most approaches are unreliable to quantify impact at regional scales and do not allow for comparison of different invasive species. There are four basic problems that need to be addressed: (1) Some impacted ecosystem traits are spatially not additive; (2) invader effects may increase non-linearly with abundance or there may be effect thresholds impairing estimates of linear impact models; (3) the abundance and impact of alien species will often co-vary with environmental variation; and (4) the total invaded range is an inappropriate measure for quantifying regional impact because the habitat area available for invasion can vary markedly among invasive species. Mathematical models and empirical data using an invasive alien plant species (Heracleum mantegazzianum) indicate that ignoring these issues leads to impact estimates almost an order of magnitude from the real values. Thus, we propose a habitat-sensitive formula for regional impact assessment that is unaffected by non-linearity. Furthermore, we make some statistical suggestions on how to assess invader effects properly and we discuss the quantification of the invaded range. These improvements are crucial for impact assessment with the overall aim of prioritizing management of invasive species.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agriculture and Ecology, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 21, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

    Jan Thiele & Johannes Kollmann

  2. Department of Basic Sciences and Environment, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

    Bo Markussen

  3. Institute of Landscape Ecology and Resources Management, University of Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26–32, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Annette Otte

  4. Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Robert-Koch-Str. 26–32, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Jan Thiele

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  1. Jan Thiele
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  2. Johannes Kollmann
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  4. Annette Otte
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Correspondence to Jan Thiele.

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Thiele, J., Kollmann, J., Markussen, B. et al. Impact assessment revisited: improving the theoretical basis for management of invasive alien species. Biol Invasions 12, 2025–2035 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-009-9605-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-009-9605-2

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