PARENT SESSION
Friday, August 11, 8:00-11:30 am
COS 104 - Invasive species VII: prevention, control, and models
Ballroom E, Ballroom Level, Cook Convention Center
Presiders: T Langkilde
Testing a predictive screening tool for reducing introduction of invasive plants to Florida.
Gordon, Doria*,1, 2, Onderdonk, Daphne2, Fox, Alison2, Stocker, Randall2, 1 The Nature Conservancy, Gainesville, FL2 University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
ABSTRACT- Screening tools that effectively predict which non-native species are likely to become invasive are necessary because of the disproportionate ecological and economic costs associated with invaders. We tested the effectiveness of the Australian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) in identifying invasive plant species in Florida. We selected the WRA (slightly modified for Florida) because it is a relatively simple, consistent, and transparent screening tool that has been tested and implemented. Further, this system resulted in the best prediction of the full range of invasive plants in Hawaii and the Pacific. Unlike the earlier tests of the WRA, we paired invaders and non-invaders in natural areas (30 pairs) and in agriculture (30 pairs) for this test. The majority of paired species were of the same growth form and from the same family. A diverse group of annuals and perennials in six growth forms from 52 families in 26 orders were included. All non-invaders had been in Florida for over 50 years. Over 90% of the invasive species in Florida were predicted to be invasive by the WRA. However, identification of non-invasive species was not as successful (<50%), likely because of the breadth of the families and pairing of closely related invasive and non-invasive species. The proportion of species requiring further evaluation was significantly reduced when a secondary screening mechanism developed for Hawaii and the Pacific was included. We suggest a modification of the questions to further improve the prediction of non-invasiveness, while not reducing accuracy of prediction of invasiveness.
Key words: invasive plant screening tool, predicting invasion, predicting invasion