Propagule pressure: a null model for biological invasions

By R. Colautti, I. A. Grigorovich, H. MacIsaac. Biological Invasions, 2006

867 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Invasion ecology has been criticised for its lack of general principles. To explore this criticism, we conducted a meta-analysis that examined characteristics of invasiveness (i.e. the ability of species to establish in, spread to, or become abundant in novel communities) and invasibility (i.e. the susceptibility of habitats to the establishment or proliferation of invaders). There were few consistencies among invasiveness characteristics (3 of 13): established and abundant invaders generally occupy similar habitats as native species, while abundant species tend to be less affected by enemies; germination success and reproductive output were significantly positively associated with invasiveness when results from both stages (establishment/spread and abundance/impact) were combined. Two of six invasibility characteristics were also significant: communities experiencing more disturbance and with higher resource availability sustained greater establishment and proliferation of invaders. We also found that even though ‘propagule pressure’ was considered in only ~29% of studies, it was a significant predictor of both invasiveness and invasibility (55 of 64 total cases). Given that nonindigenous species are likely introduced non-randomly, we contend that ‘propagule biases’ may confound current paradigms in invasion ecology. Examples of patterns that could be confounded by propagule biases include characteristics of good invaders and susceptible habitats, release from enemies, evolution of ‘invasiveness’, and invasional meltdown. We conclude that propagule pressure should serve as the basis of a null model for studies of biological invasions when inferring process from patterns of invasion.

Subfields: Ecology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6448f92298f9587fd2ed7b746f7ecb67f8eeb6b7

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Citations in the corpus

Fifty years of invasion ecology – the legacy of Charles Elton (2008, background): “Care needs to be taken to account for confounding factors and biases in comparative analyses of habitat invasibility and species invasiveness (see e.g. Colautti et al., 2006; PyÍek et al., 2005; Chytry et al., 2008).”
Hotspots of plant invasion predicted by propagule pressure and ecosystem characteristics (2011, background): “Even though the composition of the exotic species pool may change if propagule biases shift (Colautti et al., 2006), it is unlikely that new invaders will be qualitatively different from the 441 species already present in the region, so predictions of invasion risk should possess some generality.”
Tree invasions: a comparative test of the dominant hypotheses and functional traits (2011, background): “…as a significant characteristic of invasion in trees (Richardson 1998; Kaproth and McGraw 2008; Pysek et al. 2009; Martin and Canham 2010), and thus needs to be integrated as a basis of a null model when studying process of tree invasion (Rouget and Richardson 2003; Colautti et al. 2006).”
Allee Effects, Propagule Pressure and the Probability of Establishment: Risk Analysis for Biological Invasions (2006, background): “The processes of colonization are therefore of longstanding interest to both theoretical (Baker and Stebbins 1965; MacArthur and Wilson 1967; Elton 2000) and applied (Cook 1931; Gjullin 1931; Baker 1974) ecologists.”
Niche based distribution modelling of an invasive alien plant: effects of population status, propagule pressure and invasion history (2009, background): “Effects of propagule pressure Propagule pressure is widely assumed to be an important driver of invasion patterns (e.g. Lockwood et al. 2005; Colautti et al. 2006; Pyšek and Richardson 2006).”
Ain't no mountain high enough: plant invasions reaching new elevations (2009, background): “…(1) (pre-)adaptation of non-native species to abiotic conditions (eg Daehler 2003), (2) disturbances (espe- cially anthropogenic disturbances; eg Davis et al. 2000), (3) low biotic resistance of native communities (eg Levine et al. 2004), and (4) high propagule pressure (eg Colautti et al. 2006).”
Niche conservatism in non‐native birds in Europe: niche unfilling rather than niche expansion (2013, result): “Colautti et al. (2006) argued that event-level factors such as propagule pressure should be accounted for before inferring process from patterns of invasion, and we suggest the same applies to the study of changes in the environmental niche during invasion.”
Assessing the relative importance of disturbance, herbivory, diversity, and propagule pressure in exotic plant invasion (2009, background): “While it is clear that differences in dispersal play an important role in invasion success, few studies have quantified the role of variation in propagule supply in determining invasion patterns across sites (Colautti et al. 2006).”
Plant invasion across space and time: factors affecting nonindigenous species success during four stages of invasion. (2007, background): “…approximate rule, Williamson & Fitter (1996) suggest only 10% of imported species give rise to naturalized populations. i. Propagule pressure Propagule pressure strongly influences NIPS colonization success (Williamson, 1999; Lockwood et al ., 2005; Colautti et al ., 2006; Pauchard & Shea, 2006).”
Introduction history and species characteristics partly explain naturalization success of North American woody species in Europe (2009, neutral): “2003; Alpert 2006; Colautti et al .”
Species and environmental characteristics point to flow regulation and drought as drivers of riparian plant invasion (2014, background): “…life history under hydrological modification, as suggested by Lunt et al. (2012), it may reflect a bias in the types of exotic species introduced (Colautti et al., 2006; Chrobock et al., 2011) and the fact that exotic species fare better under hydrological modification than native species for…”
Ecological niches and potential geographical distributions of Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) and Natal fruit fly (Ceratitis rosa) (2007, background): “A recent meta-analysis by Colautti et al. (2006) found that invasive species that established tended to occupy similar habitats to those occupied in the native range.”