The Role of Tourism and Recreation in the Spread of Non-Native Species: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Lucy G Anderson,Steve Rocliffe,Neal R Haddaway,Alison M Dunn,Robert Britton

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140833

Abstract

Managing the pathways by which non-native species are introduced and spread is considered the most effective way of preventing species invasions. Tourism and outdoor recreation involve the frequent congregation of people, vehicles and vessels from geographically diverse areas. They are therefore perceived to be major pathways for the movement of non-native species, and ones that will become increasingly important with the continued growth of these sectors. However, a global assessment of the relationship between tourism activities and the introduction of non-native species–particularly in freshwater and marine environments–is lacking. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the impact of tourism and outdoor recreation on non-native species in terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments. Our results provide quantitative evidence that the abundance and richness of non-native species are significantly higher in sites where tourist activities take place than in control sites. The pattern was consistent across terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments; across a variety of vectors (e.g. horses, hikers, yachts); and across a range of taxonomic groups. These results highlight the need for widespread biosecurity interventions to prevent the inadvertent introduction of invasive non-native species (INNS) as the tourism and outdoor recreation sectors grow.

Highlights

Understanding and managing the pathways by which non-native species are introduced into new regions is considered the most effective way to prevent future biological invasions [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The large positive effect sizes obtained from our meta-analyses indicate that both the abundance (mean effect size (g) = 0.89, p
Effective invasive non-native species (INNS) management requires an understanding of the relative importance of different pathways of spread [5]

Summary

Introduction

Understanding and managing the pathways by which non-native species are introduced into new regions is considered the most effective way to prevent future biological invasions [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Tourism is considered to be a major pathway for the spread of non-native species [10,11,12,13]. Can the congregation of large numbers of people, vehicles and vessels from geographically diverse areas provide a regular supply of non-native propagules [14,15], common recreational activities such as hiking, mountain biking and off-road driving can act as forms of habitat disturbance, potentially facilitating species invasion [14,16,17,18]. Non-native species are often successful in disturbed habitats as their superior rates of growth and reproduction enable them to quickly colonise disturbed areas [16,20,21]

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Conclusion