Security checks. Never-ending lines. Overpriced snacks. For many, time spent at the airport is often the low point of an otherwise enjoyable vacation.
But what’s often overlooked in those long lines and security check points are the other travelers that are unknowingly joining us.
As our vacations get off the ground, so do species that are native to our home regions — tiny insects and seeds that can travel on our clothes, shoes and luggage. Once we arrive at our destination, so do they. And, in that brief moment when we tell ourselves, “I could totally live here,” they’re already ahead of us, setting up camp and reproducing if conditions are suitable. The same happens when freight is shipped by air from one country to another; species can hitch a ride to a new destination.
Species that are native where we’re from pose a significant threat to ecosystems on the other side of the country or globe, where their naturally-occurring predators may not exist. This issue is already prevalent in many places, but in the coming years developing nations will be hit hardest by nonnative species invasions according to new research published this week in Nature Communications.
Scientists who worked on the study, including Josh Lawler and Julian Olden, College of the Environment faculty and co-founders of the UW Center for Creative Conservation, found that increasing air travel is the number one way invasive species are spreading into developing countries.
“Plants and animals that can’t survive long haul trips aboard shipping vessels can survive a plane ride,” Lawler, a professor of environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington, said.
Developing regions are the least prepared to deal with invasives, which makes the findings especially problematic.
In areas of Africa, Central America, Central Asia and Indochina, early-detection and eradication strategies for nonnative species are often nonexistent. In part, that’s because those regions haven’t felt the impacts of invasives the way many westernized countries have. In developed nations, pests have long enjoyed free reign as a result of the mass movement of people and goods. There are simply fewer historical precedents in developing countries that illustrate the need to be prepared.
Invasive species, which spread prolifically and can cause wide-scale damage, threaten both human health and economies in the nations where they’ll hit with the most ferocity in decades to come.
“Agricultural pests and weeds could reduce production, potentially leading to a loss of income and also food shortages,” Lawler said.
In the extreme, and likely in conjunction with environmental shifts caused by climate change, these kinds of invasions could even lead to famine.
The study also suggests that 16 percent of global biodiversity hotspots, regions that support some 60 percent of the world’s plant, bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian species and a massive share of species not found elsewhere in the world, are located within the countries identified as most at risk of nonnative species invasions. In areas that support such diverse concentrations of wildlife, often endemic, we stand to lose so much.
Lawler, Olden and their team’s findings highlight the need for more monitoring, early detection and rapid response efforts for new invaders, especially in developing regions where air travel increasingly brings in more money, but also nonnative species that could ravage locals’ livelihoods.
“Developing lists of critical and likely invaders is one of the simplest things that can be done. They could be used for prioritizing border control efforts and monitoring and detection efforts, too,” Lawler said.
Written by: Kelly Knickerbocker, kknick@uw.edu
