Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Biodiversity

Global change through invasion

Nature volume 388, pages 627–628 (1997)Cite this article

Invasion by plants and animals occurs everywhere, and has profoundly influenced the shape of the world's biota over geological time. From the very early stages of agriculture, humans have also intentionally transported crops and animals to other regions of the world, thus greatly advancing the material culture of different societies1; the introduction of many more organisms was not so welcome. Today, the scale of species introduction by humans is vastly increased. Vitousek et al., in a paper in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology2, argue that species introductions should be recognized as an important component of human-induced global change and as a serious threat to biodiversity.

Invading plant and animal species have caused drastic changes in the receiving biota of islands like New Zealand or Hawaii, as testified by their recent history. Vitousek et al.'s carefully constructed, extensive list of plant invasions now allows us to look at this phenomenon from a more global perspective. Introduced species make up 26-40 per cent of all plant species in isolated regions (Table 1), and even more on islands: for example, 82 per cent of Ascension Island's biota is composed of introduced species. Regions with a high volume of trade generally have more introduced species than less frequented areas. What is surprising, though, is that continental areas are no exceptions. Introduced species make a significant contribution both in terms of the number of species per unit area and as their relative share in the flora (Table 1). There are some striking examples for vertebrates too: New Zealand's fish fauna contains 30 ‘exotic’ species (53 per cent of the total), Puerto Rico's has a whopping 91 per cent, and even Brazil has 13 per cent2.

Table 1 Table 1 The contribution of non-native plant species to floras of different regions of the world
Full size table

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Species versus area curve for mammals.

References

  1. Diamond, J. M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies (Norton, New York, 1997).

  2. Vitousek, P. M., D’Antonio, C. M., Loope, L. D., Rejmánek, M. & Westbrooks, R. NZ J. Ecol. 21, 1–16 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Campbell, F. T. & Schlarbaum, S. E. Fading Forests: North American Trees and the Threat of Exotic Pests (Nat. Res. Defense Council, New York, 1994).

  4. Wilson, K.-J. Pacific Cons. Biol. (in the press).

  5. King, C. M. (ed.) Handbook of New Zealand Mammals (Oxford Univ. Press, 1990).

  6. Wright, D. H. Int. J. Biometeorol. 331, 293–299 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Horticulture and Food Research Institute, Private Bag 11030, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Gábor L. Lövei

Authors
  1. Gábor L. Lövei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lövei, G. Global change through invasion. Nature 388, 627–628 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/41665

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/41665

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing