Effect of the Internet Commerce on Dispersal Modes of Invasive Alien Species

Abstract

The spread of invasive alien plants has considerable environmental and economic consequences, and is one of the most challenging ecological problems. The spread of invasive alien plant species depends largely on long-distance dispersal, which is typically linked with human activity. The increasing domination of the internet will have impacts upon almost all components of our lives, including potential consequences for the spread of invasive species. To determine whether the rise of Internet commerce has any consequences for the spread of invasive alien plant species, we studied the sale of thirteen of some of the most harmful Europe invasive alien plant species sold as decorative plants from twenty-eight large, well known gardening shops in Poland that sold both via the Internet and through traditional customer sales. We also analyzed temporal changes in the number of invasive plants sold in the largest Polish internet auction portal. When sold through the Internet invasive alien plant species were transported considerably longer distances than for traditional sales. For internet sales, seeds of invasive alien plant species were transported further than were live plants saplings; this was not the case for traditional sales. Also, with e-commerce the shape of distance distribution were flattened with low skewness comparing with traditional sale where the distributions were peaked and right-skewed. Thus, e-commerce created novel modes of long-distance dispersal, while traditional sale resembled more natural dispersal modes. Moreover, analysis of sale in the biggest Polish internet auction portal showed that the number of alien specimens sold via the internet has increased markedly over recent years. Therefore internet commerce is likely to increase the rate at which ecological communities become homogenized and increase spread of invasive species by increasing the rate of long distance dispersal.

Human-mediated dispersal of aquatic invertebrates with waterproof footwear

“…The majority of these studies focused on commercial transport (of goods such as seeds, soil, aquaria, and machinery) and on organisms attached to boats or in ship ballast waters (e.g., Carlton 1999;Reichard and White 2001;Escrivà et al 2012). This is mainly due to the rise of dispersal events with the increase of international commerce, now further expanded through the use of internet (Lenda et al 2014); e-commerce delivers, over new and traditionally routes, different species to far away places producing an increase of long-distance dispersal events. However, few studies focused specifically on the impact of clothes and footwear usage as unintentional dispersal vectors.…”

Swailing affects seed germination of plants of European bio-and agricenosis in a different way

“…It can be assumed that SGV influences the dynamic hormonal and redox balance in seeds whose dormancy is broken by low temperature or light [37,39,40]. Considering an invasive species, Solidago gigantea, further research on the impact of SGV on other invasive plants in Europe would be worthy to be carried out, because unlimited possibility of shopping and travelling, together with the climatic changes largely contribute to ecological invasions [41,42].…”

Trade patterns of the tree nursery industry in Europe and changes following findings of citrus longhorn beetle, Anoplophora chinensis Forster

“…The risk may be higher when members of the public order plants directly from suppliers in East-Asia, for example through the internet. Internet sales were uncommon in comparison with sales through European garden centres or nurseries, although these are increasing (Giltrap et al 2009, Lenda et al 2014. The reported findings of individual beetles in private gardens rarely lead to the establishment of natural populations, but it is not impossible.…”