Roads Accelerate the Invasion Process of Alien Species

Abstract

Biological invasions have been identified as one of the human-induced global changes, which not only threaten native biodiversity but also cause a considerable economic loss both globally and locally. The long distance dispersal of alien species is often facilitated by human activities and disturbances. This paper summarized lots of paper to explain how road affect the local biodiversity and accelerate the invasion process of alien species. We discuss several aspects to clarify this issue: the impacts of roads affect the alien and native species in new regions, environmental conditions near roads affect the effect of roads, the effects of roads on alien species in high altitude regions, the effects of roads on different propagation manner of alien species and at last the fast growth of road length and alien species in China. Human disturbances promote the performance and abundance of alien species in new regions, and roads as one key of human disturbances act as corridors for the flow of alien propagules and seeds into new landscapes and ultimately accelerate the invasion process of alien species.