The Link Between International Trade and the Global Distribution of Invasive Alien Species

Invasive alien species (IAS) exact large biodiversity and economic costs and are a significant component of human-induced, global environmental change. Previous studies looking at the variation in alien species across regions have been limited geographically or taxonomically or have not considered e...

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Main Authors:	Westphal, M. I., Browne, M., MacKinnon, K., Noble, I.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5387

id	okr-10986-5387
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-53872021-04-23T14:02:22Z The Link Between International Trade and the Global Distribution of Invasive Alien Species Westphal, M. I. Browne, M. MacKinnon, K. Noble, I. Invasive alien species (IAS) exact large biodiversity and economic costs and are a significant component of human-induced, global environmental change. Previous studies looking at the variation in alien species across regions have been limited geographically or taxonomically or have not considered economics. We used a global invasive species database to regress IAS per-country on a suite of socioeconomic, ecological, and biogeographical variables. We varied the countries included in the regression tree analyses, in order to explore whether certain outliers were biasing the results, and in most of the cases, merchandise imports was the most important explanatory variable. The greater the degree of international trade, the higher the number of IAS. We also found a positive relationship between species richness and the number of invasives, in accord with other investigations at large spatial scales. Island status (overall), country area, latitude, continental position (New World versus Old World) or other measures of human disturbance (e.g., GDP per capita, population density) were not found to be important determinants of a country's degree of biological invasion, contrary to previous studies. Our findings also provide support to the idea that more resources for combating IAS should be directed at the introduction stage and that novel trade instruments need to be explored to account for this environmental externality. 2012-03-30T07:32:35Z 2012-03-30T07:32:35Z 2008 Journal Article Biological Invasions 1387-3547 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5387 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	Invasive alien species (IAS) exact large biodiversity and economic costs and are a significant component of human-induced, global environmental change. Previous studies looking at the variation in alien species across regions have been limited geographically or taxonomically or have not considered economics. We used a global invasive species database to regress IAS per-country on a suite of socioeconomic, ecological, and biogeographical variables. We varied the countries included in the regression tree analyses, in order to explore whether certain outliers were biasing the results, and in most of the cases, merchandise imports was the most important explanatory variable. The greater the degree of international trade, the higher the number of IAS. We also found a positive relationship between species richness and the number of invasives, in accord with other investigations at large spatial scales. Island status (overall), country area, latitude, continental position (New World versus Old World) or other measures of human disturbance (e.g., GDP per capita, population density) were not found to be important determinants of a country's degree of biological invasion, contrary to previous studies. Our findings also provide support to the idea that more resources for combating IAS should be directed at the introduction stage and that novel trade instruments need to be explored to account for this environmental externality.
format	Journal Article
author	Westphal, M. I. Browne, M. MacKinnon, K. Noble, I.
spellingShingle	Westphal, M. I. Browne, M. MacKinnon, K. Noble, I. The Link Between International Trade and the Global Distribution of Invasive Alien Species
author_facet	Westphal, M. I. Browne, M. MacKinnon, K. Noble, I.
author_sort	Westphal, M. I.
title	The Link Between International Trade and the Global Distribution of Invasive Alien Species
title_short	The Link Between International Trade and the Global Distribution of Invasive Alien Species
title_full	The Link Between International Trade and the Global Distribution of Invasive Alien Species
title_fullStr	The Link Between International Trade and the Global Distribution of Invasive Alien Species
title_full_unstemmed	The Link Between International Trade and the Global Distribution of Invasive Alien Species
title_sort	link between international trade and the global distribution of invasive alien species
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5387
_version_	1764394864044146688

The Link Between International Trade and the Global Distribution of Invasive Alien Species

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