BioInvasion

BioInvasion Overview

Animals           Diseases          Insects             Ocean              Plants

  • Over 50,000 non-native species cause over $120 billion dollars of damage, per year, in the United States More than 120,000 species have invaded the USA, UK, Australia, India, South Africa and Brazil
  • Invaders include viruses and bacteria such as tuberculosis, AIDS, flu, cholera, hepatitis, etc.
  • Invasive species are second only to human population growth in causing a loss of biodiversity, responsible for about 42% of the decline in endangered and threatened native species in the USA.
  • Of course, not all species are harmful, and 98% of our food supply comes from non-native species like corn, wheat, cattle, and poultry.
  • Roughly 25% of the 120,000 introduced species cause damage.

Source: Pimentel, David. 2002. Biological Invasions: Economic and Environmental Costs of Alien Plant, Animal, and Microbe Species. CRC Press

March 2016. Tiny water flea, big cost: Scientists say invasive species impacts much worse than thought.

July 2015. Boosting nutrients gives a leg up to invasive species

March 2012. Invasive species cost the Great Lakes millions: New paper assigns dollar figure to effects of shipborne invaders.

The world’s 100 worst invasive species

Invasive species in the United States

Wikipedia invasive species

Annual economic costs of some introduced species in the USA.  David Pimentel, Lori Lach, Rodolfo Zuniga and Doug Morrison, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University

Weeds in crops                      $29,000,000,000

Diseases in crops                     23,500,000,000

Rats                                       19,000,000,000

Insects in crops                       14,500,000,000

Weeds in forages, gardens, etc.  6,500,000,000

Human diseases                         6,500,000,000

Cats                                         6,000,000,000

Plant diseases in gardens           3,000,000,000

Zebra mussels                          3,000,000,000

Insects in gardens                     2,500,000,000

Insects in forests                      2,100,000,000

Birds                                       2,100,000,000

Asiatic clam                              1,000,000,000

Fishes                                     1,000,000,000

Other plants                                250,000,000

Pigs                                            200,000,000

Dogs                                          136,000,000

Elm disease                                 100,000,000

Mongoose                                    50,000,000

Green crab                                   44,000,000

Gypsy moth                                 22,000,000

Fire ants                                      10,000,000

Horses and burros                         5,000,000

Reptiles and amphibians                    604,000

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