Invasion biology and conservation biology: time to join forces to explore the links between species traits and extinction risk and invasiveness

Abstract

Expansion and decline of species are natural phenomena (Levin, 2000). However, owing to the increasing infl uence of humans worldwide, the processes driving expansion and decline have speeded up dramatically. Hence, we have the current biodiversity crisis. Humanmediated forces are making some species rarer (ie, driving them towards extinction) while at the same time making some species expand their ranges (‘invasive’ sensu Richardson et al., 2000). Undisputedly, the immediate causes for extinction of native species and invasiveness of aliens are extrinsic factors, such as habitat destruction and climate change. However, the ultimate causes have to be ecological and life-history characteristics of species (Kotiaho et al., 2005). Therefore, important research directions in conservation biology and invasion biology are the analyses of species traits associated with rarity (Murray et al., 2002) and invasiveness (Pyšek and Richardson, 2007), respectively. The first are important for prioritizing conservation efforts, and the second are important for prioritizing eradication efforts and the development of screening protocols of potential invasiveness of species considered for introduction to other regions. Unravelling the links between species traits and extrinsic factors is highly complex, particularly because assessment of the causes of rarity and invasiveness relies mainly on retrospective analyses since large-scale controlled experiments are often not feasible (Richardson et al., 2004). However, with the increasing availability of large, widely accessible databases and analytical approaches (eg, Wilson et al., 2007), it is becoming easier to test which traits are associated with rarity and invasiveness, and under which conditions.