Documenting, Mapping, and Predicting Invasive Plants, Animals, and Diseases in the United States

Research Task: 83279N9.1.0
Task Manager: Tom Stohlgren

The increasing threat of exotic species introductions intensifies the need for scientists, managers, and the many stakeholders affected by invasive species to rally together to build better systems for invasion prevention, improve early detection of invaders, track established invaders, and coordinate containment, control, and effective habitat restoration. To this end, FORT’s National Institute of Invasive Species Science (www.niiss.org) operates through this task to (1) establish and maintain a data cooperative to accelerate the sharing, standardization, completeness, and accessibility of the distribution and abundance of non-native plants, animals, and diseases in the U.S.; (2) coordinate research and modeling in the areas of prevention, early detection, and rapid response, including developing ecological forecasting capabilities by integrating high-resolution remote sensing and environmental mapping, state-of-the-art spatial and temporal modeling, and high-performance computing; (3) provide technical assistance to government agencies, non-government organizations, scientists, and the public on all aspects of invasive species science, and (4) make all information available to stakeholders, policymakers, and the public as quickly as possible.

 For more information contact Tom Stohlgren

Related Products

Publications

• Assessing vulnerability to invasion by nonnative plant species at multiple spatial scales
• Improving biodiversity knowledge with dataset synergy: a case study of non-native plants in Colorado
• Beyond theories of plant invasions: lessons from natural landscapes
• Aspen persistence near the National Elk Refuge and Gros Ventre Valley elk feedgrounds of Wyoming, USA
• Soil characteristics and plant exotic species invasions in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA
• A nested-intensity design for surveying plant diversity
• Filling in the gaps: modelling native species richness and invasions using spatially incomplete data
• A tamarisk habitat suitability map for the continental United States