John Magnuson chaired a meeting of 18 scientists interested in aspects of species invasion (10 LTER, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Idaho National Environmental Research Park, and the NERC in Great Britain). Participants’ specific interests ranged from the natural process of invasion as a part of succession to the invasion of established systems by non-native species. Still others were interested in the intentional introduction of new species as part of a management strategy.
The group’s main objective was to determine how action in the context of the LTER Network could enhance efforts to answer the classic questions of invasion theory--what makes a good invader, what makes a system invasible, how does the system respond to invasion.
These possible contributions of conducting intersite comparisons across a variety of biomes were identified:
- More general principles might be revealed, particularly through investigations of disturbance in invasion and the role of scale in the match between invader and community;
- Greater understanding of the response of the ecosystem to invasion-- since the removal of species is in many ways similar to the addition, extirpations as well as invasions should be examined
- Greater understanding of invasion at the landscape level through consideration of corridors! linkages both facilitating invasion and changing in response to it
The issue of genetically engineered organisms, one that may focus increased attention on invasion studies in the future, was also raised.
The group agreed that an important goal would be to produce guidelines as a basis for decision-making about new[introduced invading species. Specific actions were also agreed upon:
Each LTER site will be asked to prepare a list of invading and extirpated species. This effort will estimate the magnitude of the problem, identify possible areas of cooperative study, focus attention on the issue of non-native species, and encourage sites to develop policy concerning them. A committee was formed to work on this project.
- A symposium on invasion will be planned for the August 1992 Ecological Society of America (ESA) meeting in Hawaii. As a warm-up for that event, a committee was formed to organize a contributed paper group for the 1991 ESA meeting in San Antonio
- Jon Evans may organize a workshop on succession as an area of interface between ecosystem and population studies
It was also suggested that a bulletin board for the invasion group be established, though no action on this was taken.