Invasive Species

Project Director: Theresa Culley, University of Cincinnati

A critical step of any effort to reduce the impact of invasive plants and pests is to first identify which non-native species are problematic – in short to assess and compose a list of invasive or pest species. To prevent a confusing proliferation of lists, many US states have been developing their own invasive species lists through their state-based councils and agencies. These groups typically create their lists using a specific assessment protocol, which often relies on information from peer-reviewed publications among other references. However, this reliance also poses the biggest obstacle as many members of assessment teams do not have ready access to these articles, many of which require paid subscriptions. Consequently, members of individual state assessment teams often spend their valuable volunteer time trying to obtain these required articles, often searching separately for the same information at the same time.

This Invasive Species Working Group will include representatives from multiple Midwestern states to create a more efficient assessment process, leading to quicker updates of invasive species lists. The two objectives of the Working Group are to (1) meet monthly to share references and thereby speed up invasive plant assessments by individual states, and (2) create a database of references with direct links to a publication repository. The Working Group will collect and combine all scientific literature that individual states have already used for their completed species assessments. The Working Group will then expand this effort to focus on additional species still in the assessment pipeline, so as to coordinate among states and prevent duplication of effort. The database will be updated through continual review of the scientific literature by undergraduate researchers, who will gain invaluable experience in invasive plant biology and policy. The outcomes of this project will be greater information exchange and knowledge sharing of invasive plant assessments, leading to quicker updates of state-based invasive plant lists.

Goals

Proactively identify invasive plant species and send alert in advance of widespread issues
Avoid each state replicating time and resources