Aliens on the Move: Transportation Networks and Non-native Species

Abstract

Biological invasions are a major component of global environmental change, threatening biodiversity and human well-being. These invasions have their origin in the human-mediated transportation of species beyond natural distribution ranges, a process that has increased by orders of magnitude in recent decades as a result of accelerating rates of international trade, travel, and transport. In this chapter, we address the role that overland transportation corridors, particularly railways, have in the transport of non-native species. We focus specifically on the role of rail vehicles in dispersing stowaway species, i.e. species that are moved inadvertently and that are not specific to the commodities being transported; we also focus on the natural dispersal and establishment of non-native species along railway edges. We place these processes in the context of biological invasions as a global phenomenon and provide examples from the literature. We also list general management recommendations for biological invasions highlighting the particularities associated with their management in railway transport systems. Following previous studies, we briefly outline four possible management approaches: (1) "Do nothing;" (2) "Manage propagule supply;" (3) "Manage railway environments;" and (4) "Act over the invasive populations directly". These approaches are not mutually exclusive, and they range from an expectation that natural processes (e.g. ecological succession) will drive the invaders out of the ecosystems, to the application of Fernando Ascensão and César Capinha have contributed equally to this chapter. measures to extirpate the invaders directly (e.g. manual removal). We highlight that best practices for the management of invaders in railway-related systems may be difficult to generalize and that they may have to be considered on a case-by-case basis. We end by stressing that research on railways in the context of biological invasions remains scarce, and that fundamental knowledge for understanding the relative importance of this transport system in the dispersal of species and on how this process should be dealt with remains largely lacking.

Hammerhead worms everywhere? Modelling the invasion of bipaliin flatworms in a changing climate

“…The last few decades have seen an enormous increase in the amount and frequency of movements of people and goods on a global scale (Ascensão & Capinha, 2017). Trade and transport networks that connect distant regions of Earth contribute to the dispersal of living organisms from their native ranges to new areas (Banks et al, 2015), where they sometimes establish viable populations when the local environmental conditions resemble the conditions to which they were adapted in their native range (Richardson et al, 2000).…”

Investigation of Heavy Metal Sources on Railways: Ballast Layer and Herbicides

“…The approximate ratio between the articles devoted to investigating the railway and road impacts on wildlife is 1 to 15 [Popp & Boyle, 2017]. Although the railway transport has a lot of advantages compared to the automobile transport, its operation can also result in significant chemical, parametrical, biological and biocenotic pollution [Ascensão & Capinha, 2017; Barrientos et al, 2019; Borda-de-Água et al, 2017; Lucas et al, 2017;Plakhotnik, et al, 2005;Wiłkomirski et al, 2011;. Thus, it is important to pay more scientific attention to the ecological problems of railways, which are still understudied.…”

Invasion Ecology: Expanding Trade and the Dispersal of Alien Species

“…Numerous studies have shown how infrastructure facilitates the spread of alien species in the past [10,11]. One of the most prominent examples is the opening of the Suez Canal connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea [8].…”