Assessing Invasive Alien Species Across Multiple Spatial Scales: Working Globally And Locally

Quantitative investigations on invasive alien species (IAS) across multiple spatial scales are needed because biological invasions often encompass enormous expanses in both donor and invaded ranges and because the immigrants may be carried great distances between these ranges. Although invasion biology is rich in anecdotes, translation of this information into generalizations remains limited by technical shortcomings in data acquisition, inconsistent data assembly, and the continuing search for meaningful indices of the impact of IAS. Much better justification of and greater opportunities to combat IAS could be achieved by distilling all information for IAS into spatially explicit case histories and synthetic predictions on the epidemiology and consequences of biological invasions for public review, discussion, and action. © The Ecological Society of America