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Biological invaders in a greenhouse world: will elevated CO 2 fuel plant invasions?
Author(s) -
Weltzin Jake F.,
Belote R Travis,
Sanders Nathan J.
Publication year - 2003
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 - 10.1890/1540-9295(2003)001[0146:biiagw]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - climate change , ecology , ecosystem , carbon dioxide in earth's atmosphere , global warming , environmental science , global change , greenhouse gas , ecosystem ecology , environmental resource management , biology
Climate change and biological invasions, two of the hottest topics in ecology, both have ecological and societal implications, but they have developed on separate and parallel paths. Both are likely to have global impacts, yet researchers seldom explicitly consider their interaction. We argue that changes in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and subsequent climate change may facilitate biological invasions, both directly and indirectly, and that our research agenda to date has left us poorly prepared to predict the consequences for communities and ecosystems. Forecasting the impact of biological invaders or elevated CO 2 is a challenge for ecologists, and it is therefore prudent and timely to investigate the greater challenge, namely predicting the combined effects of invaders and elevated CO 2 on native ecological systems.