Author: Cleo Bertelsmeier

Aymeric Bonnamour and Cleo Bertelsmeier have published a study on historical plant invasions predicting current insect invasions. Invasive insects severely impair ecosystem functioning and impact human societies. It is therefore urgent to better predict and prevent future invasions. Using statistical models, they show that nonnative plant introductions are a major driver of insect invasions, and that insect invasions lag behind plant invasions. In the near future, new insect invasions are estimated to increase by 35% worldwide based on recent nonnative plant introductions. The Afrotropics, the Neotropics, and Indomalaya are the regions most at risk of future invasions. These results highlight that limiting the introduction and spread of nonnative plants will be key to preventing future insect invasions. Link

The study was featured on:

UNIL webpage

CQFD radio show (RTS)

Le Temps

RJF

News Day Fr

Cleo Bertelsmeier highlights new research on alien ants showing that they are a particularly successful group of introduced species which have completely reshaped community structures and have spread worldwide with ongoing globalization. Link.

Interview in 24heures with Cleo Bertelsmeier about impacts of climate change on the movements of insects potentially threatening human health: Link

A news post on 24heures / Le matin dimanche on our research about invasive animals sold as exotic pets (in French). Link

Sébastien and Cleo have published a study about international trade flows and ant invasions.

Summary:

Globalization has led to the unintentional movement of thousands of species around the world, necessitating a better understanding of how species are spread by international trade to prevent new invasions. However, to date, the evidence implicating global trade in intercontinental species flows has been mixed. Here, we show that commonly used proxies of global trade, such as general and agricultural imports, fail to explain the invasion flows of alien ants from donor regions to the continental US. Analysis of 97 individual commodity flows revealed instead that plant and fruit imports – a small subset of all agricultural commodities – were primarily associated with invasion flows of ants. The transport patterns of all 95 other commodities, including most “agricultural” commodities, differed from those of alien ants. Our findings highlight the need to determine precisely which commodities serve as introduction pathways for a particular taxon in or flows and identify likely source regions of future invasions in a world of evolving trade relationships.

Citation: Ollier, S. & Bertelsmeier, C. (2022) Precise knowledge of commodity trade is needed to understand invasion flows. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. doi:10.1002/fee.2509