ArticlePLoS biology2014
A unified classification of alien species based on the magnitude of their environmental impacts.
Article in PLoS biology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 136 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
136 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Invasiveness is linked to greater commercial success in the global pet trade.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the Impact of Invasive Alien Plants on Forest Regeneration in European Temperate Forests.Frontiers in plant science · 2020Pooled it
- A general framework for predicting the ecological effects of range expansions in marine systems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Economic Costs of Biological Invasions in Marine Systems.Integrative zoology · 2026Article
- Projecting future damage costs of non-native species using combined dynamical and cost-density equations.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Article
- The impacts of biological invasions.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Quantifying and categorising the animal welfare impacts caused by biological invasions.Nature communications · 2026Article
- CanPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Expanding invasive species impact assessments to the ecosystem level with EEICAT.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- A Systems Perspective: How Social-Ecological Networks Can Improve Our Understanding and Management of Biological Invasions.Bioscience · 2026Review
- Life History Responses of Four Invasive Crayfish Species Under Prolonged Suboptimal Temperatures.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- The cumulative consequences of multispecies invasions and the great shuffle of biodiversity.Bioscience · 2026Review
- Trait-mediated filtering of Phytophthora pathogen invasions through global horticultural trade networks.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Review
- The Impact of a Range-Shifting Predator Is Affected by Prey Preference and Composition.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Population Genetics Reveals the Invasion Pathways ofEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Monitoring Alien Species Diversity in Ballast Water Based on Environmental DNA Metabarcoding.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Harms of introduced large herbivores outweigh benefits to native biodiversity.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Population Declines of the Oriental MagpieEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Integrating the thermal dependence of sex ratio into distribution models to predict suitable habitats for the invasive freshwater pond slider turtle,Marine life science & technology · 2025Article
76 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
21 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Species moved by human activities beyond the limits of their native geographic ranges into areas in which they do not naturally occur (termed aliens) can cause a broad range of significant changes to recipient ecosystems; however, their impacts vary greatly across species and the ecosystems into which they are introduced. There is therefore a critical need for a standardised method to evaluate, compare, and eventually predict the magnitudes of these different impacts. Here, we propose a straightforward system for classifying alien species according to the magnitude of their environmental impacts, based on the mechanisms of impact used to code species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Invasive Species Database, which are presented here for the first time. The classification system uses five semi-quantitative scenarios describing impacts under each mechanism to assign species to different levels of impact-ranging from Minimal to Massive-with assignment corresponding to the highest level of deleterious impact associated with any of the mechanisms. The scheme also includes categories for species that are Not Evaluated, have No Alien Population, or are Data Deficient, and a method for assigning uncertainty to all the classifications. We show how this classification system is applicable at different levels of ecological complexity and different spatial and temporal scales, and embraces existing impact metrics. In fact, the scheme is analogous to the already widely adopted and accepted Red List approach to categorising extinction risk, and so could conceivably be readily integrated with existing practices and policies in many regions.
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