Journal Article

Are species more harmful in their native, neonative or alien range? Insights from a global analysis of bark beetles

Bacher, Sven, Forgione, Laura, Vimercati, Giovanni

2022

Overview

Aim Anthropogenic environmental modifications such as climate or land‐use change are causing species to move on their own beyond their native ranges. As this phenomenon will increase in the near future, it is crucial to determine whether range‐expanding species, or neonatives, are more or less likely than native and alien species to impact their recipient ecosystems. Here, we compared impact magnitudes of bark beetle species from their native, neonative and alien ranges, simultaneously. Location Global. Methods We formulated four general scenarios about the magnitude of environmental impacts in different ranges (native, neonative and alien) based on hypotheses commonly used in invasion biology. We tested these scenarios globally on Dendroctonus bark beetles, asking whether they have the most harmful impacts in their native, neonative or alien ranges. Impacts reported in the literature were assessed with the IUCN Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT). Results We found that bark beetles cause the most harmful impacts in their native ranges, followed by the neonative ranges, while impacts in their alien ranges are the lowest. This indicates that the more dissimilar the environment is from that in the native range, the lower the probability of high‐impact magnitudes. Our results align with several non‐exclusive hypotheses, e.g. pre‐adaptation and habitat filtering, while they do not support others, e.g. enemy release or Darwin’s naturalization. The results are also in contrast with previous studies on vertebrates and plants, which found no or mixed differences in impact magnitudes with biogeographic origin. Main conclusions Our analysis suggests that bark beetles, like other species that are keystone and abundant in their native ranges, have generally lower impacts when introduced to novel environments due to biotic resistance or lack of pre‐adaptation. Research and management implications regarding the impacts of neonative and alien populations are also discussed.

• Publisher: Wiley,John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subject: Adaptation / Anthropogenic factors / Bark / bark beetles / Beetles / Biodiversity / Biology / biotic resistance / climate / Climate change / Coleoptera / Dendroctonus / Ecosystem biology / EICAT assessment / Environmental impact / environmental impacts / geographical distribution / habitat filtering / habitats / Human influences / Hypotheses / Indigenous species / Introduced species / invasive species / keystone / Land use / land use change / Native species / Nonnative species / pre‐adaptation / probability / range‐expanding species / RESEARCH ARTICLE / Success / Taxonomy / Vertebrates