A new publication stemming from our project has been published in the high-profile journal Trends in Ecology and the Environment, titled “Culturomics and iEcology provide novel opportunities to study human and social dimensions of alien species introductions” (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2024.08.012).
To prevent future invasions, it is essential to understand the multiple factors that determine which alien species are being introduced and where. It is not yet fully understood how ecological factors and a set of human and social factors together shape alien species introductions. In the paper, we present a scheme for the intentional and unintentional introduction of alien species, aiming at disentangling the role of human and social factors and their interactions from the traditionally considered ecological factors (i.e., the alien species traits and the characteristics of the ecosystem) at the beginning of the invasion. It is restricted to the initial stages of the process up to the introduction of a species to the new region. Also, we propose a set of approaches from the fields of conservation culturomics and iEcology that can be used to obtain proxies to quantify the outlined factors influencing alien species introductions. The emerging fields of conservation culturomics and iEcology offer low-cost and broad-scale valuable tools for studying the biological invasions. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, we can advance our understanding of the factors determining alien species introductions and plan conservation outcomes more effectively.
Novoa, A., Jarić, I., Pipek, P. and Pyšek, P. (2025). Culturomics and iEcology provide novel opportunities to study human and social dimensions of alien species introductions. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 40(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.
