An inventory of invasive alien species in China

Abstract

Invasive alien species (IAS) are a major global challenge requiring urgent action, and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) includes a target on the issue. Meeting the target requires an understanding of invasion patterns. However, national or regional analyses of invasions are limited to developed countries. We identified 488 IAS in China's terrestrial habitats, inland waters and marine ecosystems based on available literature and field work, including 171 animals, 265 plants, 26 fungi, 3 protists, 11 procaryots, and 12 viruses. Terrestrial plants account for 51.6% of the total number of IAS, and terrestrial invertebrates (104 species) for 21.3%. Of the total numbers, 67.9% of plant IAS and 34.8% of animal IAS were introduced intentionally. All other taxa were introduced unintentionally despite very few animal and plant species that invaded naturally. In terms of habitats, 64.3% of IAS occur on farmlands, 13.9% in forests, 8.4% in marine ecosystems, 7.3% in inland waters, and 6.1% in residential areas. Half of all IAS (51.1%) originate from North and South America, 18.3% from Europe, 17.3% from Asia not including China, 7.2% from Africa, 1.8% from Oceania, and the origin of the remaining 4.3% IAS is unknown. The distribution of IAS can be divided into three zones. Most IAS are distributed in coastal

No improved resistance against generalist herbivores found for invasive genotypes: a case study of Senecio vulgaris (Asteraceae) and a generalist snail (Achatina fulica)

“…In contrast, invasive S. vulgaris was first recorded in China in 19 th century (Xu et al, 2012), and A. fulica was first reported in China in 1931 (Yan et al, 2001) suggesting that the snails could share evolutionary history with the invasive S. vulgaris in China. For this logic, A. fulica should prefer native populations of S. vulgaris vs. invasive ones.…”

“…In the 18th century, it spread to North Africa, North America, South America, Hawaii, Asia, Australiaand New Zealand (Hulten, 1968) (Robinson et al, 2003). It was first recorded in China in 19 th century (Xu et al, 2012) and nowadays mainly distributes in the south -western and north -eastern part of China (Cheng & Xu, 2015). Senecio vulgaris contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) (Cano et al, 2009;Yang et al, 2011), which served as deterrent or toxic to herbivores and pathogens (Boppré, 1986;Schneider, 1987;Macel, 2003;Molyneux et al, 2011).…”

Predicting the potential distributions of Senecio vulgaris L. in China

“…Li and Xie ( 2002) declared much wider distribution of S. vulgaris, which includes Heilongjiang, Hebei, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Chongqing, Hubei, Shanghai and Hongkong, besides all the parts mentioned by Chen (1999), in total 16 provices (or regions). Wu et al(2010) and Xu et al(2012) presented the distribution of S. vulgaris at province or reginal level, and they reported different number of provinces. Nine provinces in the former and 14 in the latter study, but no specific province or region names mentioned in either of these two studies.…”

“…Senecio vulgaris is listed as one of the alien invasive or naturlizied plant speices in China (Wu et al 2010;Xu et al 2012). Senecio vularis were reported as new occurencies in Lhasa, Tiebet (Yu et al 2008) and in Nansi Lake, Shadong (Wang 2010), previous stuies about S.vulgaris in China focused on the PAs and the other bioactive (eg.…”

Alien Invasive Aquatic Plant Species in Botswana: Historical Perspective and Management

“…Water hyacinth has been found to be "rich in protein, vitamins and minerals and serves as a high quality feed stock used in poultry and fishery in Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Thailand" [171,172]. However, "its high alkalinity and potentially toxic heavy metal contents would restrict its use as manure" [173,174].…”