Distribution patterns of invasive alien species in Alabama, USA

• Main Author: Xiongwen Chen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Regional Euro-Asian Biological Invasions Centre (REABIC) 2012-12-01
• Series: Management of Biological Invasions
• Subjects: farmland; human population; invasive alien species; urban area; road length
• Online Access: http://www.reabic.net/journals/mbi/2012/1/MBI_2012_1_Chen.pdf

Invasive alien species (IAS) cause environmental and economical problems. How to effectively manage all IAS at a large area is a challenge.Hypotheses about IAS (such as the “human activity” hypothesis, the “biotic acceptance” and the “biotic resistance”) have been proposedfrom numerous studies. Here the state of Alabama in USA, widely occupied by IAS, is used as a case study for characterizing the emergentpatterns of IAS. The results indicate that most IAS are located in metropolitan areas and in the Black Belt area which is a historical intensiveland use area. There are positive relationships between the richness of IAS and the change of human population, the species richness and thenumber of endangered species, as well as the total road length and farmland area across Alabama. This study partially supports the abovethree hypotheses and provides a general pattern of local IAS. Based on possible processes related with IAS, some implications forstrategically managing local IAS are discussed.