UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Quantifying global colonization pressures of alien vertebrates from wildlife trade

Li, Yiming; Blackburn, Timothy; (2023) Quantifying global colonization pressures of alien vertebrates from wildlife trade. Nature Communications , 14 , Article 7914. 10.1038/s41467-023-43754-6. Green open access

[thumbnail of Blackburn_s41467-023-43754-6 (3).pdf]
Preview
Text
Blackburn_s41467-023-43754-6 (3).pdf

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

The global trade in live wildlife elevates the risk of biological invasions by increasing colonization pressure (the number of alien species introduced to an area). Yet, our understanding of species traded as aliens remains limited. We created a comprehensive global database on live terrestrial vertebrate trade and use it to investigate the number of traded alien species, and correlates of establishment richness for aliens. We identify 7,780 species involved in this trade globally. Approximately 85.7% of these species are traded as aliens, and 12.2% of aliens establish populations. Countries with greater trading power, higher incomes, and larger human populations import more alien species. These countries, along with island nations, emerge as hotspots for establishment richness of aliens. Colonization pressure and insularity consistently promote establishment richness across countries, while socio-economic factors impact specific taxa. Governments must prioritize policies to mitigate the release or escape of traded animals and protect global biosecurity.

Type: Article
Title: Quantifying global colonization pressures of alien vertebrates from wildlife trade
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43754-6
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43754-6
Language: English
Additional information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10182341
Downloads since deposit
3Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item