Richard Hobbs, Harold Mooney - Programme Leaders

• Global Change and Invasives Workshop - San Mateo California, USA held April 2-5, 1998.

• New Publication:
  INVASIVE SPECIES IN A CHANGING WORLD, edited by H.A. Mooney and R.J. Hobbs. 2000. 457 pp. (Order from Island Press, POB 7, Dept 2PR, Covelo, CA 95428. USD $55.00 cloth; $30.00 paper + S/H. Phone:800-828-1302; WWW: http://www.islandpress.org)

We need to bring synthesize our available information in order to comprehend the full dimensions of the changes that we will see in the global environment of the future and how these will affect the severity of the invasives problem. We propose to assemble a group of specialists to bring perspectives on the relative importance of global change elements, to develop a model showing their interactions, and to prioritize what new information we need to make our predictions more robust. We also need to determine how we will need to assemble such information for individual countries.

Proposed Activities

We will utilize a workshop mode to bring together the necessary expertise to lay out the dimensions of the problem, to develop an interactive model, and to discuss the design of new experiments. We will include country as well as area specialists in order to consider how to design nation-specific studies. The structure of the workshop will be as follows:

• Introduction

  • Changing trade pathways

• Impact of invasives

  • Land use change overview

  • Changing Agricultural Practices

  • Climate change

  • Aquatic systems

  • Terrestrial systems

  • Human diseases

  • Atmospheric change

    • CO2 effects -- plants

    • CO2 effects -- animals

    • Ozone effects

    • Nitrogen deposition

  • Biotic change

    • Herbicide resistance

  • Country studies of potential impacts:

    • India, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, Czech Republic

  • Modeling predictions of global change impacts

  • New experimental approaches for exploring global change impacts on invasives: Argentina, Czech Republic

• Specific issues that will be addressed:

  • What is the nature of global change-elements and rates?

  • What kinds of land use change will either help or hinder the course of invasive species?

  • What sorts of scenarios will we see in the future in terms of land use patterns and the abundance of and movement of invasives?

  • How will climate change alter the balance between native and exotic species and crops and humans and their pests?

  • How will changes in atmospheric gases that directly affect metabolism including CO2, ozone and nitrogenous compounds affect potential competitive outcomes between invaders and native vegetation or crops?

  • Will there be changes in biotic structure due to the continued use of pesticides and the development of herbicide resistant plants?

  • How can we utilize scenarios of global climate change, global land use change, and global atmospheric change to predict the changing success of invasive species?

  • The study of invasion biology has been hampered by the lack of experimentation. We need to develop approaches to experimentation in this field, and especially in examining the potential effects of global change

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Outcomes and Beneficiaries

This project will provide elements for the Global Invasives Strategy and the Action Plan on Invasives. In addition the detailed results of the workshop will be made widely available through a special issue of a leading journal as well as on the Global Invasive Strategy program web page. The country analyses will be distributed to policy makers and managers within each target nation.

This project will provide elements for the Global Invasives Strategy and the Action Plan on Invasives. In addition the detailed results of the workshop will be made widely available through a special issue of a leading journal as well as on the Global Invasive Strategy program web page. The country analyses will be distributed to policy makers and managers within each target nation.

Global change is driven by events that occur locally but affect regional and global processes. Although actions applied locally are crucial for dealing with invasives, other more regional and global actions are needed. This project will pinpoint those drivers that are of a global nature and that need regional and international solutions. Further, local events provide warning of potential global effects.