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This concept has been deprecated.

deprecated concept > invasive species

Preferred term

invasive species  

Definition

  • Invasive species', or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions. The first definition, the most used, applies to non-indigenous species, or 'non-native', plants or animals that adversely affect the habitats and bioregions they invade economically, environmentally, and/or ecologically. They disrupt by dominating a region, wilderness areas, particular habitats, and/or wildland-urban interface land from loss of natural controls. This includes non-native labeled as exotic pest plants and invasive exotics, in restoration parlance, growing in native plant communities. It has been used in this sense by government organizations as well as conservation groups such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the California Native Plant Society. The European Union defines 'Invasive Alien Species' as those that are, firstly, outside their natural distribution area, and secondly, threaten biological diversity. It is also used by land managers, botanists, researchers, horticulturalists, conservationists, and the public for noxious weeds. The kudzu vine (Pueraria lobata), Andean Pampas grass (Cortaderia jubata), and yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) are examples. The second definition includes the first, but broadens the boundaries to include indigenous or native species, with the non-native ones, that disrupt by a dominant colonization of a particular habitat or wildlands area from loss of natural controls . Deer are an example, considered to be overpopulating their native zones and adjacent suburban gardens, by some in the Northeastern and Pacific Coast regions of the United States. The third definition identifies invasive species as a widespread nonindigenous species. This one can be too broad, as not every nonindigenous or 'introduced' species has an adverse effect on a nonindigenous environment. A nonadverse example is the common goldfish, though common outside its native range globally, it is rarely in harmful densities to a native habitat. Because of the variability of its definition, and because definitions are often from a socio-economic perspective, the phrase invasive species is often criticized as an imprecise term for the scientific field of ecology. This article concerns the first two definitions; for the third, see Introduced species.

Broader concept

Creator

  • herbert.schentz@umweltbundesamt.at

In other languages

  • 入侵物种

    Chinese

  • espèce invasive

    French

  • 外来種

    Japanese

  • Invaderende art

    Norwegian

  • especie invasora

    Spanish

  • Invasiv art

    Swedish

URI

http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/USLterCV_269

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