The cosmos ’s first world-wide depth psychology of the distribution of established foreign species has unwrap the “ hotspots ” where aliens are film hold .
Alas , we are not talking about “ I want to believe ” stranger of the little green world mixture , but invasive species that have sway up somewhere that is n’t their instinctive habitat , await around and said “ Hey , I like it here , I think I ’ll stick a while , ” usually to the detriment of the flora and zoology already there .
The external team of researchers revealed that island and mainland coastal regions are the world ’s hotspots for invading plant and animal species , with the top three being the Hawaiian Islands , New Zealand ’s North Island , and Indonesia ’s Lesser Sunda Islands .
The researchers hope their findings , published in the journalNature Ecology and Evolution , show that more in force measures need to put in place to check further invasions into touchy ecosystems that ca n’t cope .
" We need to be much good at trying to forestall the introduction of species that can be harmful in the first place,“saidteam drawing card Dr Wayne Dawson of Durham University , UK , in astatement . " Prevention is better than therapeutic with encroaching species . "
The researchers studied existing data point and created a database with eight categories , include ants , amphibians , birds , mammalian , freshwater fish , reptilian , spider , and vascular plants , and studied their dispersion across the world .
This go them to establish that islands and coasts had gamey numbers , so they focused on studying 186 islands and 423 mainland regions . They found that Hawaii had the most exotic invaders , with in high spirits number of invasive mintage in all eight categories found there .
Staggeringly , one-half of all New Zealand ’s plant life were not aboriginal , while itsbattle with invasive mammals – especially possums , rats , and cat – is well known , jeopardise many of its endemic species .
In Europe , the UK had one of the high figure of established foreign species , renowned examples including the bright tropical light-green parroket find ubiquitously across London and the gray squirrel that outcompeted the Christmas card - esque red . In the US , Florida was the top hot spot , with 26 percent of its Pisces , reptile , skirt , and mammals being non - native , including the Burmese python , iguana , and feral hog .
The researchers also found gamy numbers of invader in place that were wealthier and more densely populated , leading them to close that human institution – whether unintentionally , like stowaway rats literally rise ship , or purposelyreleasing unwanted pets into the fantastic – is largely responsible .
The team concluded that planetary efforts to stanch the lunar time period of introduced metal money demand to concenter on these areas name in their study , with increased biosecurity measures , peculiarly at points of entry like interface , and a recapitulation of currently proposed introductions .
