Ecological Explosions The History of Biological Invasions and Invasion Science

About this book

A leading biologist offers a comprehensive and accessible history of invasive species science, from its earliest antecedents through its current research foci and controversies.

From the arrival of the naval shipworm in the Black Sea in the first millennium BCE to the escape of the Burmese python in Florida in 1992, humans have moved species to new locations, deliberately or inadvertently, for thousands of years. Agricultural and environmental impacts of some invasions were evident early, although whether observers recognised that the cause was an introduced species is uncertain. The history of invasion biology truly begins in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, when explorers noticed European species on various distant islands and in North America. In the nineteenth century, biogeographers, studying species distributions across the globe, introduced the first native and non-native species categorisations, and prominent researchers like Charles Darwin began to describe the impacts of introduced species. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as humans moved increasing numbers of species across the globe, the advent of modern ecology deepened our understanding of the scope of the problem.

In Ecological Explosions, invasive species expert Daniel Simberloff provides a thorough overview of the development of invasion science, from early research – including from the perspectives of leading scientists like Aldo Leopold – to the field's future. Simberloff explores the work of pioneering ecologists like Charles Elton, antecedents of what became today's invasion biology, before discussing the field's true emergence in the 1980s, its explosive methodological and theoretical expansion, its integration with other disciplines, and its increasing visibility, not only within the biological literature but also in government policies across the world in the 1990s. Finally, he investigates current controversies, such as the debate over whether the entire science is xenophobic, and asks how ecosystems might adapt to a rapidly globalising world and ever-increasing numbers of introduced species-including the joro spider, lionfish, spotted lanternfly, phragmites, and Asian carp.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. Introduction

Part I. People Move Species Around and Eventually Recognize Some Impacts
Chapter 2. The Early Shuffling of the Biosphere
Chapter 3. Early Recognition of the Extent of Invasions and Increasing Concern with Their Impacts
Chapter 4. Mid-Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Invasions: Scientists Engage in Management
Chapter 5. Late 1800s to Early 1900s: The Trickle Becomes a Flood
Chapter 6. Mid-Nineteenth- to Mid-Twentieth-Century Research, Often Forgotten, and Warnings, Largely Ignored
Chapter 7. Mid-Twentieth Century: A False Start, and the Lead-Up to Modern Invasion Science
Chapter 8. Geographers Study Invasions: A Largely Separate Endeavor
Chapter 9. The SCOPE Project Jump-Starts Modern Invasion Science
Chapter 10. Invasions Invade the Scientific and Popular Literature

Part II. A Rapidly Growing Science Expands and Evolves
Chapter 11. Invasion Science Embraces Evolution and Genetics
Chapter 12. Impacts, from Populations and Communities to Ecosystems
Chapter 13. Invasion Science Catches Two Ecology Waves
Chapter 14. How Will Climate Change Affect Biological Invasions and Their Management?
Chapter 15. Hypotheses Explaining Biological Invasions Proliferate
Chapter 16. Measuring, Ranking, and Predicting Invasion Impacts
Chapter 17. Management of Biological Invasions
Chapter 18. Controversies Abound
Chapter 19. The Near Future of Invasion Science

Notes
Bibliography
Species Index
Subject Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Daniel Simberloff is the Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Ecological Studies at the University of Tennessee. His books include Invasive Species: What Everyone Needs to Know and Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions. He was formerly editor-in-chief of Biological Invasions.