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Biol Invasions (2008) 10:13451351 DOI 10.1007/s10530-007-9209-7
ORIGINAL PAPER
In search of a real denition of the biological invasion phenomenon itself
Loc Valry Herv Fritz Jean-Claude Lefeuvre Daniel Simberloff
Received: 26 July 2007 / Accepted: 26 December 2007 / Published online: 1 February 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract The many qualifying terms attributed to invasive species reveal the lack of precision surrounding the notion of biological invasion itself. In spite of several proposed denitions, some basic disagreements persist concerning characterization of the phenomenon. These primarily arise from the lack of pertinence of both of the main current criteriathe geographic (or biogeographic) criterion and the impact criterionto what is really intended by invasion. Faced with this situation, it seems preferable to adopt an ontological approach allowing a return to the basic principles of the elaboration
of a denition. Starting with the nature of the phenomenon itself (i.e., its essence), we try to elucidate the notion of biological invasion and we suggest a general denition compatible with most of the ideas already expressed.
Keywords Biological invasion Denition
Geographic criterion Impact criterion
Interspecic competition Ontological approach
Introduction
ALIEN (Crawley et al. 1996), EXOTIC (Green 1997),
NON-INDIGENOUS (Mack et al. 2000; Pimentel et al.
2000; Kolar and Lodge 2001), IMPORTED (Williamson
and Fitter 1996), INTRODUCED (Lonsdale 1994), NON-
NATIVE (Davis et al. 2000), IMMIGRANT (Bazzaz 1986),
COLONIZER (Williamson 1996), NATURALIZED (Richardson et al. 2000a) are among the qualifying terms attributed to invasive species in the eld of invasion ecology (Davis and Thompson 2000; see Colautti and MacIsaac 2004 for an exhaustive review of terms). Beyond the simple semantic aspect, this profusion of terms clearly reveals the inaccuracy surrounding the notion of biological invasion itself.
This confusion appeared at the birth of invasion ecology: indeed, in its founding book, The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants, Charles Elton (1958) does not propose a denition of the
L. Valry (&) J.-C. Lefeuvre
Dpartement dEcologie et de Gestion de la Biodiversit, Musum National dHistoire Naturelle, Universit de Rennes 1, Bt 25Avenue du Gnral Leclerc,35042 Rennes cedex, Francee-mail: [email protected]
J.-C. Lefeuvree-mail: [email protected]
H. FritzLaboratoire de Biomtrie et Biologie Evolutive, Universit de Lyon, Universit Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR 5558, 43 boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, Villeurbanne 69622, Francee-mail: [email protected]
D. SimberloffDepartment of...