Weed Risk Assessment

About this book

The impact of invasive species on native vegetation is a major threat to biodiversity all over the world - a threat ranked second only to habitat destruction. Other negative effects of weed invasions include reduced ecosystem services, loss to agricultural production and impacts on human health. This work covers the discipline of risk assessment as applied to the invasion ecology of plants. Taking a global context, it synthesizes theories on plant invasions, introduces a variety of models for weed risk assessment, and addresses procedures for ranking invasive species on a range of scales to determine weeds of national significance. It shows how the application of risk assessment to weed invasion may help reduce weed impact and thereby improve living conditions for people throughout the world. This text is aimed at invasions ecologists, botanists, quarantine officers, policy-makers and community groups wanting to know more about this developing discipline.

Contents

Overviews * What tools do we have to detect invasive plant species? * The search for patterns that enable prediction of invasion * Can the impacts of invasive species be predicted? * Priorities for weed risk assessment: using a landscape context to assess indicators of functions, services and values * Evaluating pest-screening systems - insights from epidemiology and ecology * A comparison of systems to analyze potential weed distributions * National Perspectives * Weed risk assessment for plant introductions to Australia * Implementation of a permitted list approach to plant introductions to Australia * Assessing the risk to indigenous biota of exotic plant taxa new to New Zealand * Pest risk assessment in the United States: guidelines for qualitative assessments for weeds * Towards a system to determine the national significance of weeds in Australia * Regional Perspectives * Invasive plant problems and requirements for weed risk assessment in the Galapagos Islands * Weed risk assessment and prevention in Hawaii: status and practicalities * Commercial use, physical distribution, and invasiveness description: three reasons why Florida still struggles with invasive plants * The effect of introduction pressure on the naturalization of ornamental woody plants in south-eastern Australia * A weed risk assessment model for aquatic weeds in New Zealand * Categorizing invasive plants: the challenge of rating the weeds already in California * Scary species, superlative sites: assessing weed risk in New Zealand's protected natural areas * Synthesis * Weed risk assessment: core issues and future directions.

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