Critical Issues in Invasion Biology for Conservation Science

Modern conservation biology had its origins in the management of game species and later of rare species, focusing attention on understanding the biological origins and causes of population decline, rarity, and endangerment. But while anthropogenic global change has resulted in the decline of some species, others have thrived and proliferated, accompanied by sometimes dramatic impacts on both single populations and whole ecosystems (Office of Technology Assessment 1993). Although some have long recognized invasive, non-native species as a force capable of irreversibly transforming the natural world (Elton 1958; Baker 1965), these scientists were in large part acting in isolation from those doing traditional conservation biology. In fact, even recent books on conservation biology often include only a cursory treatment, if any, of the problem of nonnative species (e.g., Soulé 1986; Fiedler and Jain 1992; Given 1994; Jordan 1995).