Threat of invasive pests from within national borders

Dean R. Paini (), Susan P. Worner, David C. Cook, Paul J. De Barro and Matthew B. Thomas
Additional contact information
Dean R. Paini: CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
Susan P. Worner: Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity
David C. Cook: CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
Paul J. De Barro: Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity
Matthew B. Thomas: Cooperative Research Centre for National Plant Biosecurity

Nature Communications, 2010, vol. 1, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Predicting and ranking potential invasive species present significant challenges to researchers and biosecurity agencies. Here we analyse a worldwide database of pest species assemblages to generate lists of the top 100 insect pests most likely to establish in the United States and each of its 48 contiguous states. For the United States as a whole, all of the top 100 pest species have already established. Individual states however tend to have many more 'gaps' with most states having at least 20 species absent from their top 100 list. For all but one state, every exotic pest species currently absent from a state's top 100 can be found elsewhere in the contiguous United States. We conclude that the immediate threat from known invasive insect pests is greater from within the United States than without. Our findings have potentially significant implications for biosecurity policy, emphasizing the need to consider biosecurity measures beyond established national border interventions.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1118 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:1:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1118

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1118

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().