invaders should be regularly monitored and managed to avoid the spread of
propagules. Additionally, transportation networks can also be set to benefit people
while minimizing their environmental and social costs. Integrating transportation
verges in landscape connectivity management plans, including ecological corridors,
would therefore better enable achieving the conservation goals, in particular to
ensure a sustainable co-existence between transportation networks with the conservation of biodiversity.
Conclusions
Invasive species are responsible for many negative impacts on biodiversity and
human welfare. What is worrisome is that as the transportation of people and goods
around the world increases, so does the number of biological invasions. It is thus
increasingly important to identify the role that each transportation system has in
dispersing species beyond the limits of their natural ranges and to develop procedures by which this process can be reduced. Railways are responsible for several
important invasion events but, in comparison to other transportation systems, their
overall contribution to biological invasions remains poorly understood. Likewise,
the guidelines for preventing or managing the transportation of unwanted organisms
in trains or along railways are poorly synthesized and consist mainly of a hand-full
of general principles that can be applied to overland transportation systems in
general. Thus it is thus clear that more research must be devoted to this topic.
Particularly relevant contributions include the identification or “profiling” of the
species that go as stowaways in trains or their cargo, and the identification of the
characteristics of railways verges that contribute to the natural dispersal and
establishment of invaders over native species. Such knowledge remains vital for
assessing the relative importance of railways systems in biological invasions and to
helping prioritize which measures to take in order to reduce the human dispersal of
unwanted species.
Acknowledgements Fernando Ascensão acknowledges financial support by the Infraestruturas
de Portugal Biodiversity Chair—CIBIO—Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources.
César Capinha acknowledges financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and
Technology (FCT/MCTES) and POPH/FSE (EC) trough grant SFRH/BPD/84422/2012.
References
Aikio, S., Duncan, R. P., & Hulme, P. E. (2010). Lag-phases in alien plant invasions: Separating
the facts from the artefacts. Oikos, 119, 370–378.
Albrecht, H., Eder, E., Langbehn, T., & Tschiersch, C. (2011). The soil seed bank and its
relationship to the established vegetation in urban wastelands. Landscape and Urban Planning,
100, 87–97.
76
F. Ascensão and C. Capinha
propagules. Additionally, transportation networks can also be set to benefit people
while minimizing their environmental and social costs. Integrating transportation
verges in landscape connectivity management plans, including ecological corridors,
would therefore better enable achieving the conservation goals, in particular to
ensure a sustainable co-existence between transportation networks with the conservation of biodiversity.
Conclusions
Invasive species are responsible for many negative impacts on biodiversity and
human welfare. What is worrisome is that as the transportation of people and goods
around the world increases, so does the number of biological invasions. It is thus
increasingly important to identify the role that each transportation system has in
dispersing species beyond the limits of their natural ranges and to develop procedures by which this process can be reduced. Railways are responsible for several
important invasion events but, in comparison to other transportation systems, their
overall contribution to biological invasions remains poorly understood. Likewise,
the guidelines for preventing or managing the transportation of unwanted organisms
in trains or along railways are poorly synthesized and consist mainly of a hand-full
of general principles that can be applied to overland transportation systems in
general. Thus it is thus clear that more research must be devoted to this topic.
Particularly relevant contributions include the identification or “profiling” of the
species that go as stowaways in trains or their cargo, and the identification of the
characteristics of railways verges that contribute to the natural dispersal and
establishment of invaders over native species. Such knowledge remains vital for
assessing the relative importance of railways systems in biological invasions and to
helping prioritize which measures to take in order to reduce the human dispersal of
unwanted species.
Acknowledgements Fernando Ascensão acknowledges financial support by the Infraestruturas
de Portugal Biodiversity Chair—CIBIO—Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources.
César Capinha acknowledges financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and
Technology (FCT/MCTES) and POPH/FSE (EC) trough grant SFRH/BPD/84422/2012.
References
Aikio, S., Duncan, R. P., & Hulme, P. E. (2010). Lag-phases in alien plant invasions: Separating
the facts from the artefacts. Oikos, 119, 370–378.
Albrecht, H., Eder, E., Langbehn, T., & Tschiersch, C. (2011). The soil seed bank and its
relationship to the established vegetation in urban wastelands. Landscape and Urban Planning,
100, 87–97.
76
F. Ascensão and C. Capinha