RC8. Continental comparisons of biological invasions in tropical forests

9th December 2008, at Macquarie University in Sydney.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE Denise Hardesty - CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems (Leader) Saara DeWalt - Clemson U (USA) Carol Horvitz - U Miami (USA) Helen Murphy - CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Curtis Daehler - University of Hawai'i (USA) Marcel Rejmanek - University of California, Davis (USA) Jan Pergel - Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic) Brad Murray - University of Technology, Sydney Philip Hulme - Lincoln University (NZ) Peter Bellingham - Landcare Research (NZ) Andy Sheppard - CSIRO Entomology Ray Callaway - University of Montana (USA)

On Tuesday 9th December there will be an intensive 1-day research course offered, open to interested researchers and ECR and HDR.

During the remainder of the fortnight working group participants will focus on biological plant invasions of vertebrate-dispersed species in tropical ecosystems. Particpants have expertise in sample design and spatial statistics, population genetics, invasive species ecology from both plant and animal perspectives, and on the ground experience in eradication efforts. Each of the named participants has extensive experience working in this subject area, and the goal is to maximize expertise from several subdisciplines to address several core topics.

Background
While well recognised in temperate environments, it is only recently that the importance of plant invasions in tropical rainforests has gained attention. The ecological processes that drive invasions can also shed light on processes structuring and maintaining tropical forest ecosystems.  Invasions represent perturbations of ecosystems and the responses of the invader and the invaded communities can provide clues to the nature of the interactions and processes driving ecosystem function on ecological and evolutionary timeframes. 

An important feature of the global epidemic of biological invasions is that they are replicated events.  The same or a closely related species invades on different continents or in geographically distinct regions within a continent and these events can also be compared with population dynamics and patterns of movement across the landscape within the native range.  This phenomenon provides an opportunity to examine the processes and outcomes of the invasion by a single species under differing circumstances.  Comparisons of continentally replicated invasion experiments provide opportunities to test hypotheses about the mechanisms underpinning invasion and the functioning and maintenance of the ecosystems in which they occur.

Previous comparisons of biological invasions at multiple sites have not addressed weedy species in tropical ecosystems nor utilised the full potential of these comparisons.  Furthermore, there has been little consideration of how this might best be done and the methodological issues associated with these comparisons. 

Last Updated September 2008