Study
Impacts of biological invasions: what’s what and the way forward
Simberloff, Daniel; Martin, Jean-Louis; Genovesi, Piero; Maris, Virginie; Wardle, David A.; Aronson, James
Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2013
Reviews documented impacts of invasive species on populations, communities and ecosystem processes, together with evidence on lag times between establishment and impact, and on the outcomes of management.
- Studied in
- Animalia, Plantae
- Sample size
- review of documented invasion impacts and management outcomes
A minority of introduced species produce large documented impacts, including extinctions on islands and ecosystem-level changes, and impacts can appear after long lags. Management has succeeded in some cases, particularly eradications on islands.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The harm caused by a subset of invasive species is substantial and well documented, and lag times mean apparent harmlessness is not reliable evidence of it.
How NatureHQ reads it
The counterweight, and the reason the site presents this as an argument rather than a resolved question. Both records agree that most introductions are harmless and that a minority are seriously damaging. They disagree about what follows for how much weight origin should carry — which is partly an empirical question about lags and partly a question about how to act under uncertainty.
- Reporting is biased towards species that caused problems, since those are what get studied.
- Quantifying impact requires a counterfactual that is rarely available.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Cell PressPublished in a Cell Press journal.
doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2012.07.013
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-04.