Invasive plants are non-native species that establish and spread into novel environments , resulting in adverse ecological and/or economic impacts. Identifying which plant species are known to be invasive is essential for effective management, as lists of invasive plants can inform targeted monitoring for early detection and rapid response as well as priorities for prevention and control. However, biases in invasion ecology in terms of study species and study location could affect our understanding of invasion risk, potentially leading to underestimates of risk from problematic plant species. This study aims to examine the broad invasive plant literature in order to assess biases in study location, growth form, and species in the broad invasive plant literature.
Results/Conclusions
Overall, the broad invasive plant literature exhibited biases in study location, growth form, and species. More specifically, North America (58%) and Europe (16%) represented most of the invasive species literature. Additionally, forbs/herbs dominated while vines, ferns, and succulents received little attention. Finally, the top 5 invaders in the database comprised 15% of all the invasive plant literature.