Alien species driving global extinctions in animals, plants worldwide: Study

Alien species — those not native to a specific location — are the main driver of recent extinctions in both animals and plants worldwide, according to a study published on Monday. Researchers at University College London (UCL) in the UK found that since 1500 AD, alien species have been solely responsible for 126 extinctions, 13 per cent of the total number studied.

Of 953 global extinctions, 300 happened in some part because of alien species, and of those 300, 42 per cent had alien species alone listed as the cause of their demise.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, used data from the 2017 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List on the total numbers of species that are considered to have gone extinct globally since 1500 AD.

In total, 261 out of 782 animal species (33.4 per cent) and 39 out of 153 plant species (25.5 per cent) listed aliens as one of their extinction drivers.

In contrast, native species impacts were associated with only 2.7 per cent of animal extinctions and 4.6 per cent of plant extinctions.

“Some people have suggested that aliens are no more likely than native species to cause species to disappear in the current global extinction crisis, but our analysis shows that aliens are much more of a problem in this regard,” said Tim Blackburn, a professor at UCL.

“Our study provides a new line of evidence showing that the biogeographical origin of a species matters for its impacts. The invasion of an alien species is often enough to cause native species to go extinct, whereas we found no evidence for native species being the sole driver of extinction of other natives in any case,” Blackburn said.

The IUCN Red List identifies 12 broad categories of extinction drivers, including alien species, native species, biological resource use (hunting and harvesting) and agriculture.

Alien species ranked first as a driver of animal extinctions, well ahead of the second place driver, biological resource use, which affected 18.8 per cent of those lost.

The number of animal extinctions caused in some part by alien species is more than 12 times greater than those caused in part by native species, researchers said.

Some of the worst offenders are mammalian predators, such as black, brown and Pacific rats and feral cats, with island habitats hit the hardest.

Some of these animals first invaded by stowing away on boats, though some, like cats and foxes, have been introduced deliberately.

Many plants were also intentionally introduced, such as plantation tree species or ornamental plants for gardens.

Once in place, they start to spread and threaten the native flora and fauna around them; alien plants are several times more likely than natives to achieve a maximum cover of at least 80 per cent.

The origin of some species is unknown, so Blackburn and his team assumed these were native for the study.

“However, it is more likely that they are alien. Our results are therefore conservative in terms of the extent to which we implicate alien species in extinction. Also, many regions of the world have not been well studied, and there are likely to be further extinctions that haven’t been captured in these data,” he said.

The team noted that better biosecurity is needed to prevent future invasions, and in many cases measures to control or even eradicate alien species must be considered.