Our comprehensive list of non-native species established in three major regions of the United States is a 7-year ongoing literature-review project. The list covers three large regions (Alaska, Hawaii, and the conterminous United States) and provides a significant contribution to the analyses of ecological inventories, because correct identification of native vs. non-native species is key to the study of ecological interactions. We created and continue to follow a set of protocols to update the non-native species list. The list's names (at genus, species, and sub-species levels) have been standardized, where possible, using the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (https://itis.gov). Historically, non-native species lists vary widely in their geographic scope and purpose, which presented challenges during the creation of our comprehensive list. Non-native species lists for smaller and more uniform geographic areas are more common than those covering a larger geographic scope. Non-native lists of restricted taxonomic groups may be used to answer specific ecological questions, such as the effects of forest pests on a region. It is our hope that the comprehensive non-native species list will be useful in generating lists of smaller geographic or taxonomic scope.
Results/Conclusions
The non-native species list and its related dataset were published by the U.S Geological Survey in November 2018 and the first update is planned for mid-2019. In total, 1,166 authoritative sources were reviewed to compile its initial version. The list contains 11,344 unique names: 598 taxa for Alaska (1.7 million km2), 5,848 taxa for Hawaii (28,311 km2), and 6,675 taxa for the conterminous United States (nearly 7.9 million km2). Hawaii has 0.3% of the total area of these three regions, yet more than half of the non-native taxa on the list occur there. The list has also been used to label non-native species occurrences within the Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation application (https://bison.usgs.gov), which was found to have 13,450,515 non-native species occurrences. The authors seek input from the members of ESA and others to continue to improve and expand the original non-native species list.
Associated publications
Simpson, A., and Eyler, M.C., 2018, First comprehensive list of non-native species established in three major regions of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2018-1156, 15 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20181156.
Simpson, A., Eyler, M.C., Cannister, M., Libby, R., Kozlowski, N., Sellers, E., and Guala, G.F., 2018, Dataset of the first comprehensive list of non-native species established in three major regions of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9E5K160.