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How Big Is the Global Weed Patch? PDF

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HOW THE GLOBAL BIG IS WEED PATGH? 1 ccics arc a major glohal lineal lo Inodiversilv and agriculture and l..,||, llu Governments science. icco-mi/.- this ami aie devoting increasing resources lo\ as lend lo lie verv favorable lo in\asi\es. e-peeiallv the ueedv We -|ieeies. i The simplest answer question "ever to this umbers is and with sued speed as today. Musi are where"! Consider the flora ol Urilaui: mclud< enign. Itul a dangerous few cause major environ- It Polygonum amplcxicaulc Don from Him, the I). piohlems. lenlal Invasive species inav thrive in Dianthus lavas. caryophyllus from southern L. Ki new environment and leir dramatically change the sommlcnim M.pe. I'a/miri from western Asi I,, vnanues and composition of die eco~v -tern. Ih ^ '"'"'""'"" *""''"' '«"" ,aus, of our k of v.plau,,, w, now la. suffer '"rr'l la,,,- "l' !""f' imnir-zrlamliur knk \e« from /ealan >''»''/./ )nnn n ^ I. . . , • , | i i ^ ^ ^ ^^ W,™„ ^^ Iruusport „, (,.. B ,,a ,,,us,,.| ,,,,/, r,, ,„> ^ ^ ^ . ^ Asian clam ( (Corhiculu flii>„„,<<,,. ,, include species from around the urn uu Id. .. . . 2(,MM)). and witness t,he d,egrad,ati. on even or re- u ,, _ natjve flom s[)( . s |)OU|. r " (e.g., purple loose- a Species can he flora. introduced l {Lythrum Thompson strife saliraria L). 1987; et al., to "aannyywwhheerree,^ would seem. That J* it " Pimentel Growth et al.. 2(HM)). of the glohal trade more , [m| sn||I<1 S|)(J are likely ; t, species than others. : prohlem ihe inherently glohal. we musl > is ur () arguI11Ptlt is lnal IL prime ! ' habitats invasive specu-s. l{ecogniz I,,, h focuses on iden- absence we le of an ideal database, selected ,| a sties of s that enahle them species from Worlds the Worst f Invasive () Al The who ade. idea is to identify will invade Species compiled Lowe hv list el al. (2001) to : V ill.' I, i I I, approach vital to solving the top three plants, and the i L. [51 per takes an alternative approach. We attempt Chmmoluvim mta && lo odorata R. MM.. KKiinngg Koh. h \{. IIII.. |88|. identify where they will invade rather than who the and h-uruetm Irucoocreepphhaallaa ((LLaamm..)) ddee WWiitt |,T7|. ders will he. The counts of c "' "lin.nl ol c..l„g\ „d KwlulionaiA |;i„|„p. mv.-ilv ,1 lenne.-ee. knovu l> I :l | .,(,<> l);il.n,\ Hall. Wo. .5. I ..S.A. Present .,,1.1, e.-: I.', \alural lo- ,ii„ -.. )e,,ai tl.lent ol 'Fisheries and Michigan , I \\ ildlile. Si I'm Landing. Michigan IS5H2 1-1222. |enk,ns(«,nsu.edu. .S. \. I Nicholas rimmnmenl School Ihe and Sciences. Duke ,,1 .nil, Univcrsilv. Uos ham. I' <><).',2o. ' 27708. U.S.A. Stnartlm»m(«aol.eom. Ann. Missouri Hoi. Gard. 172-178. 90: 2003. have species Nonetheless, three nations. all i>l;iiul Chromohicna odorata. native large areas. in\ I.mI .)• (Holm America and Caribbean the et al., tropical to Holm invades 212-216; 1979: 1977: et al.. 85). much pastures and croplands in of tropical Africa landeover change provide Global assessments of and and Asia, the Southeast Asian island nations, somewhat overlapping estimates of dis- series of 71 Mm A rough estimate of the size of the SuXXm. 299-302: turbed habitats. 1077: (Holln 'rTra 'l of(D widespread 1979: 207). a et is al., and degraded grazing lands, croplands, with (3) (2) South turelands in areas of cleared forests the- t southern Weed of National Significance), parts of U. n uu an, and ex- \ln, a uid \1 u _ Ik liih about 129 Of land surface of the ice-free r (1) h-iuanui treme southern parts of the United States, (Holm \merica h-ticoccphala native to tropical et i- km- were converted Ml million but the planet. Lowe non- I 1979: 214; et al.. 2001). but in its al.. ecosystems wooded from naturally or forested aim native range can form dense, (Pimm, 2001). stands render large areas uni that The drylands cover roughly 61 million world's (2) The from au- and savannas. area varies shriiblanils. species occur heavily disturbed ar- All three in depending on what one means by author thor to do many other widely distributed invasive as as, Olson (Pimm, 2001; Vitousek 1986: el "dry" et al.. Mimosa pi«m various species such peeies. as I... 1983). al.. omniums \nother way AOnunlia. and liirinus I., dn Most of the world"- lands suffer from desert- _ problem survey (hs.urbed areas. view to to this is moslK human-caused ifi( . atioii a|.g( , |(()| .|i() in „, t| , | expenence Throughout the tropics, ,s our that Some 23 it |)m|)|rms ss |)|aM n>(luc tivity. |h;|| (|^( , |)n . ^.^ , ,, and have n disturbed habitats will at least o...- oil, damaged ^ ^ ., . vhm(ls vegeta- , ,,.„,,. o{ . (|| several of these listed spec.es. Often they will be 986) „<„.„ means the spre ad . gM(1 T|l s (|)l , ( _ , ; dominant spe- common; sometimes they be the will ^ species following n as unpalatable plant 11( . . ,. () f j Searching for "worst weeds" on the World ^ am cies. her livestock gnals o^ver^ ,^ ratlU ot a/i )V ._ . | , Web oiled, & Wide produces peal that a list ol r. - & (m W() 199 Bahre ,| ;m< . .X ,,.| ie r, 4; |_ , | economic harm croplands and pastures. cause to She jc,^. an Auken. 2000). Those will some- ton \ ] ^ Most are exotics, but not all. mes i nal Vr species, for instance, mesquite (na- )e t j j In short, these and oilier examples suggest that dramatically increased in |jv( . />roSl)pis s|)|)-) uls | predominantly disturbed invasive species occur in miu southwestern United nv „f Msilv [|ie . ,. r .j, ( | ( we mean major eco- ecosystems. By "disturbed." (Bahre Shelton. 1993; Archer, 1994; Van Stales' c\ system changes, such as conversion to croplands. More weeds be \uken. 2000). often, the will exotic- grazing lands, urban areas, or anthropogenic ones. such Opuntia Australia and Africa, nvas as in v «-s i j such as grasslands where there was once forest. 3 Another 40 million knr of the land surface ) ( We connection be- will not further belabor this has or an( s of one kind or another. fort s s U()()( |[ , , ] well-established and n bviously wetlands and urban areas (Olson et tats, for is er . s it ( II( .l ll( | ( | j we connection and Rather, accepl the controversial. £., 1983). move the problem of estimating how large a frac- The conversion of forests to other habitats is to of the Earth's land surface humans have mod- more complicated, since most of the world's crop- tion — been Since invasive species in these disturbed lands were once forests and so have already ified. deemed be weeds, we can re- counted above as croplands. Most of the converted habitats are often to phrase our question How big is the global weed forests are in temperate regions. About 2 million to: km been converted 2 of these forests have also to patch? We proceed by estimating the size of the weed grazing lands (Pimm. 2001). Modern human actions have shrunk the world's Globally. then regional levels. patch global, at first from humid from an original area of Regionally. tropical forests area of disturbed habitats is large. the- km km 2 we our global estimates are too small, for 14 to 18 million 2 to about 7 million at find that Pimm, Again. (Myers 2000; 2001). much disturbance thai thev miss. is not present el al.. there is It the exact numbers depend somewhat on what one to identify landcover in ca. I9<>2. As the primary means "humid." by Yel only about 2 million km- concern of onr study disturbance areas is (i.e.. vul- of croplands are what was humid in formerly, nerable we for- to invasion), locus on disturbed tin- Some 5-9 ests. million km- of humid forests have classes of the GI.CC (croplands, mosaics of crop- been converted nominally to grazing land, though lands and natural vegetation, and urban The areas). much (.1 il ha- \e,\ |„w slocking rales (I'nnni. lesoluli ihi- map approximately one is km-' al I' 2001). the equator. Summing these three pieces suggests We that also identify areas have changed that land- l.-> in. 1 ion km-' o| present-day croplands. 2.i million cover, but not necessarily into croplands or urban 1 km- of drylands. km- 2 million of temperate forest areas. For example, the conversion of forests into converted to grazing lands, and from 5 9 to million grasslands lor grazing will „ot appear as disturbed. km- nl additional forested laud not producing crops but obviouslv [Grasslands are natural type is. a it have sustained changes sufficient to their vegeta- of vegetation, but not where the original vegetation make them lion In target areas invasive species. was humid We lot a tropical do forest.) this to assess The combined under total is just half the ice-free potential error causes and means of improving on The weed irface. potential patch huge. our main is analysis. approach approximate is inevitjibly a and plete detailed analysis landcovei hauges ol of < iere these disturbed 1. inds are. To both refi all ecosystem types. The BIOMF and GI.CC maps •stimates and provide check on a their use schemes different classification for vegetation • i mm we will exploit detailed estimates make matching that corresponding classes between ; We ter. so a global scale, then them somewhat CFCC .1., first at For example, arbitrary. the Our map open scales. analyses relate primarily has an shrubland" .1 to class that corre- i t once-loresled half of the planet since the remote sponds BIOME to souk- grassland the map. How- in sensing imagery on which we does rely not so read- ever, open shrubland also includes areas are that damage ily detect the (Inlands. to obviouslv not grassland, such as central Australia. which BIOMF. map the classifies as hot desert. It A Sl'VTiM.l Fm-I.KIT Cl.niui. \ssi:ss\1K\t is uncertain thai these changes represent land deg- \ (il- CoWKKTKI) more FoUKSts radalion: hkelv. thev represent differences in schemes. classification For we the global analysis, use Geographic a In- BDAS formation System Imagine com- (I 8.5) to v K s| ,,,, VN|) )|S(;|SS1()N ,, | map bine presumed a ol original vegetation with an estimate of current landcover. The result is a global Not surprisingly, the global analysis confirms map where each pixel has information about that humanitv has disturbed its a large fraction of the original vegetation and has changed, if it or not world (Fig. I). Of the ca. 129 million km-' of ice- changed, into a different type of landcover. free land. ca. 27 million km- appear have been to The map original vegetation from is the bite- converted to croplands, mosaics of croplands and grated Model Assess to the Global Environment natural areas, and urban areas. Table (IMAGK) & project (Feema.is van den Born. 1994; Aleamo IMAGF 1998: et al.. t 17% of the laud. Disturbance concentrates in leni- ror ties, a detailed description of this model, see perate climates (temperate warm mixed forests, for- md Prentice et al. (19)2) II van d grassland/steppe) and est. the drier subtropical and Born The map (1994). resolution of this one-half is tropical vegetation (scrubland, savanna). Again, not degree and maps of latitude longitude. Color are surprisingly, most of this disturbance coincides with Aleamo IMAGF available from (1998) and human et al. the world populal d croplands, n.nsl- . team (2001). the Northern Hemisphere. in | y The map current landcover from is the Global Grasslands, scrublands, and savannas have lost band Cover Characterization (GI.CC) (Foveland from et a fourth to a third of their original area (Table A al., 2000). digital version is available al (l.ttp:// I), but these numbers may be misleading. Dislur- edcdaac.usgs.gov/glce/glee.ht,nl). This project used bance from livestock grazing on such ecosystems is AVHKK one-year sequence a of imagery satellite difficult to detect by satellite. Most of the very cold Mack mosaics croplands and natural u-uelaliou. arras include croplands, ..i ,. OLCC map map. This uses geographic projection landcoxer from the a rent is U.CC and the very dry However, the data do not include separate areas (tundra boreal forest) anil habitats (such as grasslands) that escape major disturbance. categories for dr> (deserts) have been (Love- Of combined disturbed area.. 1,2 million are purported to originally forest the 1 What happens we assume sum that km oneedon-led land 2000). 2 from area- (fable of et al., if are I. We temp, mixed these are also converted landscapes? approxi- disturbed boreal forest, cool conifer, dryland conversion by and deeid. forest, warm mixed forest, and tropical male the area of lores! to woodlands and forests that are woodland and This seems be esti- identifying tropical forest). In a lov\ The woody savannas. we should compare with the million now ,ma»lan<l-. -ax annas, or mate, for it 1 1 km 2 Adding piece km2 are now croplands plus a further area is about 2.4 million in this of forests that . km minimum km 2 cleared Hop- suggests that 16.6 million 2 of forest have been estimate of 5 million of dose 16 lower estimate of croplands (above and converted. This to the ical forests not converted to i< km' based on combining independent es- imm million 2001). |» . and mosaics croplands natural lands, of each talmn ro|. Table Original area of <,.,, I. ( UIOVI K woodlands opical or tropical forests vegetation, and as urban areas. Drylands are ( M|ua,c map), but are now grasslands, savannas, or vv All areas are expressed as l<M)0> ol . ;;o2t mixed Temp, forest 27 11 2719 Warm mixed forest IOJ!.-» (irassland/sleppe The area le. 7525 km-, which is slill less than two-thirds o TRFIC Kven estimate. after correcting the C, ma|) lor unnatural drylands, misses still a it of the disturbed area. For the Atlantic Forest example, we map f FTM edge disturbed cover 1999 using Landsat + in 7 satellite agery. sing standard .supervised classilic; I we techni(|ues, classify seven Landsat images We and lores! non-forest classes. do not (listing- specific plantations eucalyptus) (e.g.. are not a I The W World Fund map obs.). eeoregion ildlife pro- vides an estimate & of original cover (Olson forest Dinerstein. 1998). In the Atlantic Forest example, the analyses of Landsat imagery show 91.993 km- thai of forest, of an original 127.850 km', has been defores- lost to The tation. area disturbed lands (d(.C ol the in map is just 51.851 km-. 56<7r of the Landsat-de- However, rive<l .•sinuate. adding Ibiesi- eonverl- in ed to drylands increases the area 1,000 km'. to I I We selected two tropical forest areas in Rraz.il In both examples, the best of estimates from lit Hen with disturbance di histories CA.CC lit to try to idenlifv data to detailed regional estimates comes what the global analysis missing. when we is only recognize the conversion forests ol |o The Amazon is relatively intact but has had high obviously disturbed habitats (such as croplands) rales of recent deforestation (i.e.. within the last 30 and less obvious categories (such as grasslands and years. Skole Tucker. 1993). Northern Mato Cros- cK sav.uuiasl could be thai natural os\ stems, ei but are so Amazon stale, in the southeastern our liasin. is example such ol recent anthropogenic disturbance. Two factors contribute to these deficiencies the ol In contrast, most ol the Atlantic Forest was defor- CAXIC map. One. AVHRR the imagery used in ested more than 30 years ago (Fundaeao SOS Mala making GLCC the has limited abilitv to discrimi- The Atlantica, 1998). state of Kio de Janeiro and nate vegetation types. The AYHHK sensors spee- the surrounding area our example is of such his- tral bands are loo wide and poorly positioned for mapping vegetation, yielding inevitable errors. This Amazon For the example, we calculate defores- appears contribute ove to to the [estimation of de- tation using forest cover maps from the Tropical forestation in the Atlantic Forest example. The re- Rain Forest Information (TKFK We ienlei 2002). maining ( i. lores) is simply misclassilied. The second maps use 1992 match for to the year of the GI.CC laclor is thai the resolution ol the regional analyses We map. also simulate the undisturbed condition (0.0000 km') much GLCC is liner than the dala (I by replacing the deforested class in the 1902 map km') in the global analysis. This finer resolution enables better detection ol small areas of defores- This tation. likely contributes to the underestimate small patches of deforestation. We do know not these error rales are general if for ihe global analysis. These are only Iwo examples analysis significantly underestimates from W il relatively small areas. do hal they indicate According in this region. to the CA.CC, need mapping is a for belter global of landcover. example shows 3913 km 2 GLCC jusl of dis- At the lime of writing, the was ihe best glob- only about hill is a third of the re- al dala set available, but g prospects . I exist for I late in the previous paragraph. Another refining our results. FITorts are under way using * html) and Landsal n 'i I i - map imagery ellite lo ' 30-meter resolutions. respeelbeb. \egetalion map- global ping primary consideration those sensor"-, is a in maps should Conci. designs, so the resulting hotter (lis- eliminate vegetation pes and their level of dis- l\ isi\e species are a growing problem lor the The improved should turbance. spatial resolution . , both ecologically and economically. In re- islurbanee. mi I i ' I i i I the problem, governments are devoting to sing amounts of resources toward the preven- The Edges Missing many and ontrol, eradication of invasives in the world. To enable efficient use of these )f We mapped have disturbed areas as best possi icre invasives arc likely to be a problem or wood pateh missing Irom our estimates is still problem a in the future. ie Laurance (1997) found forest e.lges to be vulnera- Imbed ecosystems arc often favorable for in- imasbes ble because of "edge effects"" disturb to ion confirmed by comparing our * ' commiii cannot ing the forest iir'. as- i \ 1 i i i < ma iii disturbed P '»' -i .1 i . . . some the worst invaders. These disturbed areas. <>f . . weed one ,km-, pateh. the resoli ution loo eo, is the global weed patch, occupy least 29. million at 1 we can estimate for the Amazon and Atl; it km-' (23<7r) of the ice-free land surface. Other than Forest examples. the overgrazed dr\ lands, which our analyses arc The maps have some regional forest errors numbers detect, the broadly agree with we must correct. They have small gaps of nuu- first " ,M foresl. some of which ma\ be natural, but main of "'' '" ' Tihi«e, «ad«vvaarntage of our approach is that sin it l " :_ ...i .. ..I....":*":.'..!".:"' .1 """ ""'\'' """ Jl VI " • where those dislui icd area- are and thus where I 6 be Combining invaders arc likeb in tin— \Mlh . . " . —I , , dge. lo " i. - " < - ' * ' I" » i - lormali. on on who .invaders are 1l-i1 keb . T I to llie .„ m , even that ed,ge . a si. ngle ,10- pixeli, lo account. is it should help allocating resources in efficiently I we for this, replace patches of iion-forest smaller than 2 hectares with The use of 2 hectares forest. sification errors, ma\ also include some truly bill & Leemans Kreileman. 1998. Global R. K. The delorested areas and natural gaps. result a is (Jiang,- Scenarios tlir 21-1 lirsulls Inim llie ,,l < ill ii v edge < i : probable underestimate of lores,. '& IMAGE Model. IVrgamon Klsevier Sc, 2.1 Amazon In the example. 17.801 km- of forest is 300 within meters of an edge (fable the distance 2). com- Laurance (1998. 2000) detected that et al. munity changes \inazoniaii forest fragments. in & cock R. D. Pieper ( However, in the original state this region already had 1986 km- edge due of natural forest to rivers and savannas, \dding the edge forest, minus nat- ural edge, to the earlier estimate of disturbed area yields 24.760 knr of disturbed area (Table ap- 2), km example. 29.373 2 In the Atlantic Forest of the remaining forest within 300 meters of an is edge, \dding the delorested area yields this to 121.366 knr of disturbed area, leaving just 6484 The Netherlands, knr of un(ddiissttuurrbbeedd floorreesstl.. TThhee mmaapp oolf oorriiggiinnaall ffoorr-- lumlirao SOS Mala -Vllantica/INPE/Instituto Socioam- (WWF da Evolucao est F eeccoorreeggiioonn)) ttoooo ggeenneerraall ttoo rreelliiaabbllvy ccaall-- hiental. 1998. Atlas d( iiss Ecossistemas \ss,,ciados ' "natural"* amoiinl of edge as done for the 1990-1W5. Perfodo de Sao Paulo. Brasil. Amazon. Pancho K I'lueknell. I,. J. \. J. P. II,-, When we incorporate these regional estimates of p )(M.gt .„ >77 Th( , World's Worst | edges into the calculations of disturbed area, then and Biology. Univ. Press of Hawaii. Honolulu. (.e.mapliical \tlas d' World Weed-. John Wi- -oiisenal mi, prioril - Nature I'M-} I«»7<). \ 10.,; ;.>{}. i, . lev & Sons. New York. Olson. I). \1. * K. |)in.-M<-m l«*K5 Hi.- dol.al 2(K VI \(,K learn. 2001. The |\1 \(,K 2.2 Implementation ol representation approach to rons.-miif- thr KarthV . I „„-,,„ lnuln^„,,IK valuable ocoro^,o„s. iheHJKS Scenarios: \con,p,dic,,s,w anaKs.s.donns- t,„|. I .-.02-.il.). sions climate elian-e and imi.acls ihe •> ce In 1st \ X Olson. S... Walls Allison. '){«. iarbn .,- .... \. |. |. I.. J. ( .,,, . I | , Maim '" " ' " " ,, " l.iv \ .-cl.il ion ol Woilil I'eosvslems. . , ' ' , , ", ' | X Ferreira. M. liankin-de Ylerona \. J. S. (,. 1998. Rain forest (rau.nenlation and dv- tin- . Mi v.-p-lahon. Wildlil. l.'.-M-airh >. and (.*.,». n... 2. \\ .it I. it if. I I . DC. Service Washington. Soil Pol- i. THUG. Kam 133-161. 2002. Tropical forest Cenlei 76: l.ilornialinn lut. K Available <liltp://vvu\v.hsrsi.msn.cdii/lrlic/} (acccsse. Reed. Brown, Ohlcn. at: H.. M. C. /. J. : K Men <>" 2i <><tober 2002). Zh.i. >a.iu W. ,„l. 2( D.NclopnuMii ol I.. .1. I, v^X^T^ V \ % '" ^' k ''"- "' f 2°°° Shjub inVM.ons o| ^nl,_\,nc, d.,1,,1 land :,,,,M and a l,:„ s .I.Hal,:., lU'.l' ,. , , A -" ""'"• lU,ll;l! "-;-;:,^ s l ' " '"-- '" l: "- ;"; l > UaKuii. Ilinn.mappropn, ihe prodnc.s o !'«'.(.. ol , .owe. >.. M. Mnmiie e> s. I, lnud,jelas. 2(M)I. I(K) ol ll.c 368-373. pholosw.lhesis. ISioseience 3(r. Specs Worlds >•,„>. bnasne Worsl liua-iM \l,c„ V V s v ^ 111|t| „. | \ . |.( , M „| tllI1 |. |.,.,„. I,,,,,,,,., „| ;l |„, CN/SSC Wed Specialist (.roup. II (ilSI'. Kim.. anican. s. led 10 |ililllK .1 I. , 384-391.

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