Abstract
For many taxa, new records of non-native introductions globally occur at a near exponential rate. We undertook a systematic review of peer-reviewed publications on non-native herpetofauna, to assess the information base available for assessing risks of future invasions, resulting in 836 relevant papers. The taxonomic and geographic scope of the literature was also compared to a published database of all known invasions globally. We found 1,116 species of herpetofauna, 95% of which were present in fewer than 12 studies. Nearly all literature on the invasion ecology of herpetofauna has appeared since 2000, with a strong focus on frogs (58%), particularly cane toads (Rhinella marina) and their impacts in Australia. While fewer papers have been published on turtles and snakes, proportionately more species from both these groups have been studied than for frogs. Within each herpetofaunal group, there are a handful of well-studied species: R. marina, Lithobates catesbeianus, Xenopus laevis, Trachemys scripta, Boiga irregularis and Anolis sagrei. Most research (416 papers; 50%) has addressed impacts, with far fewer studies on aspects like trade (2%). Besides Australia (213 studies), most countries have little location-specific peer-reviewed literature on non-native herpetofauna (on average 1.1 papers per established species). Other exceptions were Guam, the UK, China, California and France, but even their publication coverage across established species was not even. New methods for assessing and prioritizing invasive species such as the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa provide useful frameworks for risk assessment, but require robust species-level studies. Global initiatives, similar to the Global Amphibian Assessment, using the species and taxonomic groups identified here, are needed to derive the level of information across broad geographic ranges required to apply these frameworks. Expansive studies on model species can be used to indicate productive research foci for understudied taxa.
Highlights
Alien or non-native species are taxa that have been transported beyond the limits of their natural range, and may become invasive in new areas if they are able to form established, self-sustaining populations in these new locations (Blackburn et al, 2011)
New invasions continue to occur at a near exponential rate (Seebens et al, 2017)
Searches were conducted on the ISI Web of Science Core Collection using the following criteria: Topic = alien OR invasive OR non-native OR exotic OR non-indigenous OR feral AND Topic = reptilà OR amphibiaà OR turtleà OR tortoiseà OR lizardà OR herpetofauna OR crocodà OR anura OR caudata OR testudinà OR ophidia OR sauria OR squamata OR snakeà OR frogà OR toadà OR salamandà OR newtÃ
Summary
Alien or non-native species are taxa that have been transported beyond the limits of their natural range, and may become invasive in new areas if they are able to form established, self-sustaining populations in these new locations (Blackburn et al, 2011). Evidence of the negative impacts of many invasive species (Pimentel, 2011), including impacts from reptiles and amphibians (Shine, 2014; Kraus, 2015; Measey et al, 2016) is increasing. This has added urgency to the pursuit of achieving a thorough understanding of factors mediating success at different stages of the introductionnaturalisation-continuum (Richardson et al, 2000; Blackburn et al, 2011) to inform policies to reduce the risk of further invasions. Fairly robust models exist to explain the success of introduced plants (Pheloung, Williams & Halloy, 1999), formal risk assessment still faces multiple challenges even for this group (Hulme, 2012; Speek et al, 2013)
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