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Invasive Species in a Globalized World

Ecological, Social, and Legal Perspectives on Policy

Over the past several decades, the field of invasion biology has rapidly expanded as global trade and the spread of human populations have increasingly carried animal and plant species across natural barriers that have kept them ecologically separated for millions of years. Because some of these nonnative species thrive in their new homes and harm environments, economies, and human health, the prevention and management of invasive species has become a major policy goal from local to international levels.

Yet even though ecological research has led to public conversation and policy recommendations, those recommendations have frequently been ignored, and the efforts to counter invasive species have been largely unsuccessful. Recognizing the need to engage experts across the life, social, and legal sciences as well as the humanities, the editors of this volume have drawn together a wide variety of ecologists, historians, economists, legal scholars, policy makers, and communications scholars, to facilitate a dialogue among these disciplines and understand fully the invasive species phenomenon. Aided by case studies of well-known invasives such as the cane toad of Australia and the emerald ash borer, Asian carp, and sea lampreys that threaten US ecosystems, Invasive Species in a Globalized World offers strategies for developing and implementing anti-invasive policies designed to stop their introduction and spread, and to limit their effects.

416 pages | 10 color plates, 34 halftones, 15 line drawings, 13 tables | 6 x 9 | © 2014

Biological Sciences: Conservation, Ecology

Earth Sciences: Environment

Reviews

“Presents a convincing argument that policy development must proceed through better integration of science, policy, and public awareness. . . . The book’s crucial contribution is convincing readers that halting the spread of invasive species is daunting, but possible, with coordination and cooperation from many stakeholders. . . . Because Invasive Species is a blend of empirical studies, reviews, control methodology, historical accounts, and policy implications, all readers can get something out of this book. . . . The book will make the biggest contribution if read by policy makers or scientists charged with communicating science to policy makers. Although some academics would argue that a species’ origin does not necessarily predict its ecological or economic impact in its introduced range and that we should not demonize exotic species, the authors illustrate the potential for a handful of species to undermine the functioning of critical habitats. Keller and his colleagues powerfully argue that the fight against invasive species is a worthy struggle.”

Jennifer L. Funk, Chapman University | BioScience

“This excellent book examines a complex issue, helping bridge the gap between policy and science, and steering global action against invasive species based on a synthesis of the relevant disciplines. The final paragraph stresses that although we have the knowledge and tools to alter the patterns and impacts of invasions, to progress we need to address the principal challenges, which are cultural rather than technical.”

Piero Genovesi, Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Italy, and chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Invasive Species Specialist Group | Oryx

“Any invasion biologist would find much of interest in this book, with its intriguing mix of topics, many a little off the well-trodden tracks of invasion biology.”

Daniel Simberloff, University of Tennessee | Biological Invasions

“Policy makers, researchers, and students in ecology, particularly population and community ecology, will find this book an excellent source of information about invasive introduced species. . . . Recommended.”

K. R. Thompson, Missouri State University | Choice

“There is much to be admired in the book. It seeks to light a little fire under a pot that has been very hard to bring to a political boil: how to get better laws in the United States to control species introductions for groups not currently regulated. . . . A good book, well worth reading.”

Roy Van Driesche, University of Massachusetts, Amherst | Ecology

“Cane toads in Australia, Asian carp in America and grey squirrels in England—Keller and Cadotte’s book, edited with environmental writer Sandiford, helps bridge the gap between ecologists, economists, and legal scholars sharing similar anxieties over invasive species regulation and its absence. These professional cross-purposes have stymied effective administration of challenges that, as the book’s title suggests, are worsening in a globalized world.”

Andrew Reeves | Alternatives Journal: Canada's Environmental Voice

“While other works have highlighted the current status of invasion ecology, this book seeks to put an emphasis on management and policy that can be created to begin to mitigate the many issues of biological invasions. Satisfying, exciting, and incorporating an astonishing variety of scholars and traditions, Invasive Species in a Globalized World provides an adequate background in invasion ecology and then steers the topic toward policy in an effective way. This is a crucial and currently lacking segment along the pathway from research to action.”

Julie Lockwood, Rutgers University | coauthor of "Avian Invasions" and "Invasion Ecology, 2nd Edition"

Invasive Species in a Globalized World is an exciting, multifaceted approach to an overwhelming, urgent problem. It has something for everyone: ecology of important invaders, updates on management efforts, costs of invasions and management, politics and laws, and social attitudes about invasions and their impacts.”

Daniel Simberloff, University of Tennessee | author of "Invasive Species" and senior editor of "Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions"

“Although much progress has been made in studies of biological invasions in recent years, effective management of invasive species remains a daunting challenge. What is clear is that effective responses demand insights from multiple disciplines. The essays collected in this book provide a very helpful primer of progress and perspectives in this regard.”

David M. Richardson, director, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa | editor of "Fifty Years of Invasion Ecology: The Legacy of Charles Elton"

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Working across Disciplines to Understand and Manage Invasive Species
R. P. Keller, M. Cadotte, G. Sandiford

Section 1 Introduction
Of Toads, Squirrels, Carps, and Kids: How Science and Human Perceptions Drive Our Responses to Invasive Species  

Chapter 2
The Ecological, Evolutionary, and Social Impact of Invasive Cane Toads in Australia
R. Shine

Chapter 3
A Tale of Two Squirrels: A British Case Study of the Sociocultural Dimensions of Debates over Invasive Species
P. Coates

Chapter 4
Fish Tales: Optimism and Other Bias in Rhetoric about Exotic Carps in America
G. Sandiford

Chapter 5
“Sooper” Impact: Drawing the Attention of Kids to the Dangers of Invasive Species
M. Newman

Section 2 Introduction
Here They Come: Understanding and Managing the Introduction of Invasive Species

Chapter 6
Patterns of Live Vertebrate Importation into the United States: Analysis of an Invasion Pathway
C. Romagosa

Chapter 7
All in the Family: Relatedness and the Success of Introduced Species
M. Cadotte, L. Jin

Chapter 8
Reducing Damaging Introductions from International Species Trade through Invasion Risk Assessment
M. Springborn

Section 3 Introduction
Controlling the Bad: Reducing the Impacts of Established Invaders

Chapter 9
Evaluating the Economic Costs and Benefits of Slowing the Spread of Emerald Ash Borer
J. Bossenbroek, A. Croskey, D. Finnoff, L. Iverson, S. McDermott, A. Prasad, C. Sims, D. Sydnor

Chapter 10
Climate Change Challenges in the Management of Invasive Sea Lamprey in Lake Superior
J. Kitchell, T. Cline, V. Bennington, G. McKinley

Chapter 11
Ecological Separation without Hydraulic Separation: Engineering Solutions to Control Invasive Common Carp in Australian Rivers
Robert Keller

Chapter 12
Does Enemy Release Contribute to the Success of Invasive Species? A Review of the Enemy Release Hypothesis
K. Prior, J. Hellmann

Section 4 Introduction
Where to from Here? Policy Prospects at International, National, and Regional Levels  

Chapter 13
From Global to Local: Integrating Policy Frameworks for the Prevention and Management of Invasive Species
S. Burgiel

Chapter 14
Developing Invasive Species Policy for a Major Free Trade Bloc: Challenges and Progress in the European Union
C. Shine

Chapter 15
There Ought to Be a Law! The Peculiar Absence of Broad Federal Harmful Nonindigenous Species Legislation
M. Miller

Chapter 16
Pathways toward a Policy of Preventing New Great Lakes Invasions J. Brammeier, T. Cmar

Chapter 17
Final Thoughts: Nature and Human Nature
G. Sandiford, R. P. Keller, M. Cadotte

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