Biological Invasions in Agricultural Ecosystems in China

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Agriculture has served as a major contributor for the China’s rapid economic development over past decades. However, agroecosystems in this coutry have been intensively invaded by invasive alien species (IAS), in particular since the beginning of twentieth century, which cause huge losses to economy and ecological service values each year. Moreover, now China agroecosystems are at the stage of being introduced with new IAS at a greater rate due to rapid growth in international trade and human activities. And, a number of dangerous IAS already introduced are continuing to expand rapidly. For these reasons, biological invasions in China agroecosystems have attracted great attention since the beginning of this century, both from governments and research institutions. In this chapter, we first depict the status of IAS in China agroecosystems regarding their diversity, source, distribution, spread and damage, and the factors perceived to have contributed to the IAS introduction and spreading in this country. Then, we show the invasibility of China agroecosystems. The major findings of researches regarding invasiveness of IAS in China are reviewed. Next, invasiveness and the underlying invasion mechanisms of some serious IAS were reviewed. Lastly, the major approaches employed for control of IAS in China agroecosystems were presented, including risk analysis, detection, monitoring, regional prevention, biological control, replacement control, breeding and use of resistant crop cultivars, as well as integrated use of invasive plants. The trend of introducing new IAS into China agroecosystems and the corresponding tactics to be taken for dealing with IAS in the future were discussed.