Department of Agronomy & Horticulture, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, United States of America.
Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2018 Mar 7;13(3):e0189733. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189733. eCollection 2018.
Mismatches between invasive species management policies and ecological knowledge can lead to profound societal consequences. For this reason, natural resource agencies have adopted the scientifically-based density-impact invasive species curve to guide invasive species management. We use the density-impact model to evaluate how well management policies for a native invader (Juniperus virginiana) match scientific guidelines. Juniperus virginiana invasion is causing a sub-continental regime shift from grasslands to woodlands in central North America, and its impacts span collapses in endemic diversity, heightened wildfire risk, and crashes in grazing land profitability. We (1) use land cover data to identify the stage of Juniperus virginiana invasion for three ecoregions within Nebraska, USA, (2) determine the range of invasion stages at individual land parcel extents within each ecoregion based on the density-impact model, and (3) determine policy alignment and mismatches relative to the density-impact model in order to assess their potential to meet sustainability targets and avoid societal impacts as Juniperus virginiana abundance increases. We found that nearly all policies evidenced doublethink and policy-ecology mismatches, for instance, promoting spread of Juniperus virginiana regardless of invasion stage while simultaneously managing it as a native invader in the same ecoregion. Like other invasive species, theory and literature for this native invader indicate that the consequences of invasion are unlikely to be prevented if policies fail to prioritize management at incipient invasion stages. Theory suggests a more realistic approach would be to align policy with the stage of invasion at local and ecoregion management scales. There is a need for scientists, policy makers, and ecosystem managers to move past ideologies governing native versus non-native invader classification and toward a framework that accounts for the uniqueness of native species invasions, their anthropogenic drivers, and their impacts on ecosystem services.
物种入侵管理政策与生态知识不匹配可能会导致严重的社会后果。出于这个原因，自然资源管理机构采用了基于科学的密度-影响入侵物种曲线来指导入侵物种管理。我们使用密度-影响模型来评估针对一种本地入侵物种（北美圆柏）的管理政策与科学指南的匹配程度。北美圆柏的入侵正在导致中北美洲从草原向林地的亚大陆级别的生态系统转变，其影响范围包括本地物种多样性的崩溃、野火风险的增加以及放牧地盈利能力的下降。我们：(1) 使用土地覆盖数据来确定美国内布拉斯加州三个生态区的北美圆柏入侵阶段；(2) 根据密度-影响模型确定每个生态区中每个土地区块范围内的入侵阶段范围；(3) 确定相对于密度-影响模型的政策一致性和不匹配性，以评估其在北美圆柏丰度增加时满足可持续性目标和避免社会影响的潜力。我们发现，几乎所有政策都存在双重思维和政策-生态不匹配的问题，例如，在同一生态区中，尽管北美圆柏的入侵阶段不同，但仍促进其传播，同时将其作为一种本地入侵物种进行管理。与其他入侵物种一样，针对这种本地入侵物种的理论和文献表明，如果政策未能优先考虑初始入侵阶段的管理，那么入侵的后果就不太可能得到预防。理论表明，更现实的方法是将政策与当地和生态区管理规模的入侵阶段保持一致。科学家、政策制定者和生态系统管理者需要超越管理本地和非本地入侵物种的意识形态，转向一个考虑到本地物种入侵的独特性、人为驱动因素及其对生态系统服务影响的框架。
