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Alien versus native species as drivers of recent extinctions
Author(s) -
Blackburn Tim M,
Bellard Céline,
Ricciardi Anthony
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
frontiers in ecology and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.918
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1540-9309
pISSN - 1540-9295
DOI - 10.1002/fee.2020
Subject(s) - iucn red list , extinction (optical mineralogy) , alien , biodiversity , threatened species , introduced species , ecology , biology , invasive species , ecosystem , alien species , vulnerable species , endangered species , geography , habitat , population , paleontology , demography , sociology , census
Native plants and animals can rapidly become superabundant and dominate ecosystems, leading to claims that native species are no less likely than alien species to cause environmental damage, including biodiversity loss. We compared how frequently alien and native species have been implicated as drivers of recent extinctions in a comprehensive global database, the 2017 International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) Red List of Threatened Species. Alien species were considered to be a contributing cause of 25% of plant extinctions and 33% of animal extinctions, whereas native species were implicated in less than 5% and 3% of plant and animal extinctions, respectively. When listed as a putative driver of recent extinctions, native species were more often associated with other extinction drivers than were alien species. Our results offer additional evidence that the biogeographic origin, and hence evolutionary history, of a species are determining factors of its potential to cause disruptive environmental impacts.