Biological Invasion and Its Research in China: An Overview

Abstract

The rapid economic development in China significantly triggered the merchandise trade, international tourism, as well as species migration and exchange in the past 30 years. Under such circumstances, large-scale biological invasions happened intensively in agricultural lands, forests, grasslands, islands, fishery, wetlands, rivers, marine and natural reserves since the last decade of twentieth century. Invasive alien species (IAS) not only cause economic losses and ecosystem meltdown, but also pose threats to human health, food supply and national safety. Since the beginning of twenty-first century, China has considerably invested in basic and applied research of IAS to meet the urgent needs in terms of prevention and management. The theories and experiences of IAS research from other countries provide valuable references to China. On the other hand, due to its own geographic, economic, cultural and historic features, China has some different motivations, emphasizes and methods for IAS researches. In this chapter we give brief introduction about IAS research in China including: the occurrence and damage of IAS, the aspects that have been studied mostly, the achievements we already got, the role of government, and the international cooperation. We also illustrate the necessity, purpose and outline of this book. In a summary, the capacity of biological invasion research and IAS management in China significantly grow in the last 20 years, which has largely contributed to the social benefits, environmental protection and economic development of this country. For the coming decades, we expect the globalization, human activity and climate change will pose more threats in terms of biological invasions, and China will be ready and well prepared for such a challenge. PU - SPRINGER PI - DORDRECHT PA - PO BOX 17, 3300 AA DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS