China's booming economy is sparking and accelerating biological invasions

Abstract

China has undergone enormous economic growth in the last 25 years, largely as a result of greatly increased international trade. This burgeoning trade has triggered environmental threats from an expanding list of biological invaders: nonnative species previously unknown in China (e.g., the American vegetable leaf miner, the fall webworm) have arrived and are already causing damage to China's environment and economy. Huge construction projects, such as the Three Gorges Dam and the recently completed rail link to Tibet, could further spread invasive species to once-isolated portions of the country. The environmental risks from this onslaught are immense: China is one of the world's hotspots of biodiversity with about 30,000 native species of vascular plants and at least 2340 species of native terrestrial vertebrates. Fostering governmental and public awareness in China of the costs of invasive species and the multiple benefits of their prevention and control will be key to countering this menace. © 2008 American Institute of Biological Sciences.