Many thanks to Duffy for this reference.
While I have not yet read the paper, the well-written abstract of adequate yet reasonable length (unlike those which have recently come into vogue which give no hint of the substance--I wonder if the increasingly rapacious academic publishers demand opacity in the hopes of selling $$ single-copy access for 24 hours?) makes me want to read the entire paper, which I have requested from the author's email supplied--again thanks. I hope the abstract will stimulate some discussion of the management conclusions (eradicate early or forget it is my presumption). I also hope that the research will help managers reconsider the common practice of throwing scarce resources into eradication projects which are doomed to failure from the start, and concentrate on restoring site conditions which will lead to ecosystem "health" such that the impact of many alien species will be limited more than many (most?) eradication programs can accomplish. It was Ewel who remarked that "restoration is the ultimate test of ecological theory," but my recent correspondences with him leads me to think that Hawaii and perhaps other tropical islands may not behave the same way some continental sites do. Perhaps Duffy can shed some light on this issue? WT ----- Original Message ----- From: "David C Duffy" <ddu...@hawaii.edu> To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU> Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012 11:27 AM Subject: [ECOLOG-L] insights into when eradication of invasive alien species will be successful some real data to go with all the commentary on alien invasive species. from Biological Invasions When are eradication campaigns successful? A test of common assumptions Therese Pluess, Ray Cannon, Vojtěch Jarošík, Jan Pergl, Petr Pyšek and Sven Bacher email to therese.plu...@gmx.ch Abstract Eradication aims at eliminating populations of alien organisms from an area. Since not all eradications are successful, several factors have been proposed in the literature (mainly by referring to case studies) to be crucial for eradication success, such as infestation size or reaction time. To our knowledge, however, no study has statistically evaluated which factors affect eradication success and attempted to determine their relative importance. We established a unique global dataset on 136 eradication campaigns against 75 species (invasive alien invertebrates, plants and plant pathogens) and statistically tested whether the following factors, proposed by others were significantly related to eradication success: (1) the reaction time between the arrival/detection of the organism and the start of the eradication campaign; (2) the spatial extent of the infestation; (3) the level of biological knowledge of the organism; and (4) insularity. Of these, only the spatial extent of the infestation was significantly related to the eradication outcome: local campaigns were more successful than regional or national campaigns. Reaction time, the level of knowledge and insularity were all unrelated to eradication success. Hence, some factors suggested as being crucial may be less important than previously thought, at least for the organisms tested here. We found no differences in success rates among taxonomic groups or geographic regions. We recommend that eradication measures should generally concentrate on the very early phase of invasions when infestations are still relatively small. David Cameron Duffy Ph.D. Professor/PCSU Unit Leader/CESU Director PCSU/CESU/Department of Botany University of Hawaii Manoa 3190 Maile Way, St John 410 Honolulu, HI 96822 USA Tel 808-956-8218, FAX 808-956-4710 http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/duffy/ ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1424 / Virus Database: 2109/4781 - Release Date: 02/02/12
