Background and goals

Invasion biology has addressed or even solved several key questions about biological invasions, but the central issues of temporal changes in biological invasions and their impacts have remained critically unexplored. Several case studies exist about long-term population dynamics of invasive species and their impacts, but a general synthesis or understanding is currently lacking. This knowledge gap is critical, as temporal shifts in invader population densities and traits are likely and may have large consequences of ecological and economic interest.

InDyNet aims to narrow this knowledge gap. More specifically, we investigate:

trends in introduction rates and time lags of invaders
boom-bust and other population dynamics of invaders
phenotypic – incl. behavioral – and genetic changes of invaders and native species affected by invaders
population dynamics of native species affected by invaders
temporal dynamics in other invader impacts
Future invasion scenarios, emerging challenges and opportunities