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In-Depth Information
The ecology of biological invasions: past, present
and future
Inderjit 1 , Marc W. Cadotte 2 and Robert I. Colautti 3
1 Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE), School of
Environmental Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India
2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996,
USA
3 Department of Botany, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3B2,
Canada
Introduction
The science of invasion ecology has reached a point where we can take stock
of its successes and failures, and perhaps formalize the vast quantity of relat-
ed ideas into a more coherent, conceptual summary. Two recently edited vol-
umes: Conceptual ecology and invasion biology: reciprocal approaches to
nature [1] and Species invasions: insights into ecology, evolution and bio-
geography [2], are testament to the maturing state of invasion biology. As a
developing science, we wish to demonstrate the interplay between theory and
observation in the development of modern invasion hypotheses and to assess
their potential explanatory power. Well known is the conservation and envi-
ronmental risk that some nonindigenous species (NIS) pose [3, 4], but what is
not always appreciated is that the road from conservation concern to explana-
tory science is not always easily traversed [5]. This article aims to review the
ways in which invasions are currently understood. We begin with a brief
overview of invasion ecology as a discipline followed by a broad review of
ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that are likely driving observable pat-
terns of invasions.
History of invasion ecology
People have been interested in NIS for as long as human culture has itself
'invaded' new regions. Early human immigrants not only brought language
and culture with them, but also plants and animals familiar and useful to these
cultures. The earliest European immigrants to North America systematically
introduced a wide assortment of agricultural and ornamental species from their
homelands. However, at some point this interest in NIS transformed from
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