Hypothesis Description: Enemy Release Hypothesis

Abstract

This paper provides a brief overview of a major hypothesis in invasion biology: the enemy release hypothesis. Building on a summary of different previous definitions, we provide the following revised definition: “A reduced pressure by enemies in the non-native range contributes to invasion success.” Further, we suggest formalizing the hypothesis in the basic form ‘subject - relationship - object’ to allow for disambiguating the different existing meanings and enhancing their usability by machines.