Aibin Zhan, Dan Bock, Elizabeta Briski, Robert Colautti, Juntao Hu, Hugh MacIsaac
{"title":"Ecological and Evolutionary Dynamics of Invasive Species Under Global Change","authors":"Aibin Zhan, Dan Bock, Elizabeta Briski, Robert Colautti, Juntao Hu, Hugh MacIsaac","doi":"10.1111/gcb.70530","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Anthropocene is characterized by accelerating changes in climate, land use, pollution, and global connectivity, largely reshaping ecosystems across spatial and temporal scales (Keys et al. <span>2019</span>; Willcock et al. <span>2023</span>). These rapid transformations frequently outpace the adaptive capacity of native species, contributing to widespread biodiversity loss and, possibly, to a 6th mass extinction (Barnosky et al. <span>2011</span>; Hoffmann and Sgrò <span>2011</span>). In contrast, invasive species often thrive in disturbed environments, thereby further exacerbating ecological disruptions across diverse ecosystems (Gu et al. <span>2023</span>). As such, biological invasions have emerged not only as a consequence of global change but also as a significant driver of further environmental degradation (Sage <span>2020</span>). Increasingly, evidence indicates that the interactions between biological invasions and other global change drivers are complex, nonlinear, and can often produce unexpected economic, ecological, or evolutionary outcomes (Ricciardi et al. <span>2021</span>; Hu et al. <span>2025</span>). For example, global change-induced environmental extremes can result in rapid evolution in invasive species, which can enhance the probability of invasion success and alter species interactions and ecosystem functioning (Moran and Alexander <span>2014</span>; Borden and Flory <span>2021</span>). Thus, there exists an urgent need to deepen our understanding of the complex ecological and evolutionary dynamics underlying interactions between biological invasions and global change, and, more importantly, to develop effective management solutions.</p><p>Over the past decade, research has advanced from treating invasions as isolated phenomena to examining how multiple global change drivers shape the entire invasion process, spanning transport, introduction, establishment, spread, and impact. Recent studies increasingly investigate invasions across multiple levels, ranging from individuals and populations to species and communities, while integrating ecological and evolutionary principles to elucidate the dynamics and mechanisms underlying invasion success (e.g., Chapple et al. <span>2022</span>; Hu et al. <span>2025</span>; Zarri et al. <span>2025</span>). Moreover, the integration of big data and artificial intelligence allows the development of climate-smart, adaptive management strategies that provide insights from diverse disciplines, including multi-omics and socioeconomics (e.g., Tuia et al. <span>2022</span>; Thorogood et al. <span>2023</span>).</p><p>As a reflection of the growing scientific interest in this topic, this <i>Global Change Biology</i> Special Issue titled “The ecology and evolution of invasive species under global change” attracted more than 120 submissions. The 17 published papers present both empirical and conceptual advances, shedding light on how invasive species interact with multiple dimensions of global change across scales, ranging from molecular to ecosystem levels. These studies highlight the importance of viewing invasive species not only as threats to be managed, but also as natural experiments that provide valuable insights into how life responds to environmental disruptions.</p><p>Collectively, the 17 articles published in this Special Issue span diverse taxa and ecosystems, encompassing field studies, laboratory experiments, meta-analyses, and methodological innovations. These papers also thoroughly cover research frontiers and compelling questions in biological invasions under global change, including the ways global change drivers reshape invasion pathways and risks, management frameworks and decision tools for climate-smart biosecurity, functional traits and adaptive strategies underlying invasion success, extreme events and stressors tipping the balance of invasion outcomes, effects of invasions on ecosystem processes such as soil dynamics and carbon cycling, as well as how pathogens, dispersal networks, and socioecological linkages mediate the cascading impacts of biological invasions. Together, these papers provide integrative evidence that advances invasion science and informs conservation practice and policy under accelerating global change.</p><p>Six studies (Biancolini et al. <span>2024</span>; Cao Pinna et al. <span>2025</span>; Deshpande et al. <span>2024</span>; Marcolin et al. <span>2025</span>; Rodrigues et al. <span>2024</span>; Zhou et al. <span>2024</span>) within this theme addressed a shared question: How does climate change determine where, when, and how invasions occur? These studies have moved from single-species, single-region forecasts to multispecies, multiscenario, and mechanistic appraisals of where and how invasions will spread under global change. Large-scale species distribution modelling (e.g., for 205 non-native mammals) identified new invasion hotspots when suitability was combined with dispersal constraints (Biancolini et al. <span>2024</span>), while controlled experiments and scenario-based analyses revealed that invasion outcomes could change direction and magnitude depending on the climate scenario used (Rodrigues et al. <span>2024</span>). Regionally focused, niche-dynamics studies showed frequent niche unfilling and expansion that were mediated by traits such as dispersal ability and trait variability (Cao Pinna et al. <span>2025</span>). Simultaneously, empirical work documented how shifting animal movement patterns (e.g., bird migration changes) and socioeconomic urban gradients altered dispersal pathways and the provisioning of services that can facilitate spread (Deshpande et al. <span>2024</span>; Marcolin et al. <span>2025</span>). Finally, synthesis and mapping efforts highlighted that invasion-linked pathogen–vector systems can directly threaten major carbon sinks (Zhou et al. <span>2024</span>). Together, these findings provide compelling cases for integrated invasion-risk assessments that explicitly combine climate projections, changing dispersal networks, species traits, and socioecological dynamics.</p><p>Four studies (Chen et al. <span>2024</span>; Colberg et al. <span>2024</span>; Dolan et al. <span>2025</span>; Zhao et al. <span>2024</span>) in this theme addressed the question: What conceptual and methodological tools allow managers and policymakers to anticipate future invasion threats and adapt interventions effectively under rapid global change? These studies approach invasion management not through static risk identification, but rather through actionable decision-support frameworks that explicitly incorporate climate uncertainty, pathways, and biological adaptation. Reviews and conceptual papers set out climate-smart principles and managerial priorities (Colberg et al. <span>2024</span>), while mathematically explicit prioritization tools translate multidimensional risk (suitability × pathways × socioeconomics) into ranked actions for managers (Zhao et al. <span>2024</span>). Other studies highlighted policy trade-offs; for example, Dolan et al. (<span>2025</span>) discussed how river-restoration via barrier removal may unintentionally accelerate aquatic invasions unless staged, monitored, and coupled with biosecurity measures. Importantly, integrating biological complexity, notably multi-omics measures of adaptive potential, improved the predictive accuracy of invasion-risk models and allowed managers to triage species or populations by predicted maladaptation (Chen et al. <span>2024</span>). Overall, the field is converging on practical, evidence-based tools that can be embedded into policy and operational workflows under climate change.</p><p>Five studies (Chen et al. <span>2024</span>; Fehlinger <span>2024</span>; Mantoani et al. <span>2025</span>; Nuhfer and Bradley <span>2025</span>; Zhao et al. <span>2025</span>) in this theme answered an interesting fundamental question: Which functional traits and adaptations determine invasion potential and guide species' responses to environmental change? Experimental comparisons and multifactor manipulations showed that invasiveness is not universally synonymous with stress tolerance and that invasive species can be more sensitive under compound, interacting stressors than native species (Zhao et al. <span>2025</span>). Studies of extreme events have shown that invasion dynamics can be highly nonlinear and time-dependent, in ways that are not captured by models relying solely on long-term average climate conditions (Mantoani et al. <span>2025</span>). Parallel syntheses on managed relocation and trait selection provided operational lists of high-risk traits (e.g., high reproductive output, long-distance dispersal) which can be used to balance assisted-migration decisions against invasion risk (Nuhfer and Bradley <span>2025</span>). As well, a discussion of traits (e.g., ornamental appeal) and vectors/pathways (e.g., human-mediated release) highlighted sociocultural drivers that select for invasion-prone species, especially in urban and leisure contexts (Fehlinger <span>2024</span>). Lastly, Chen et al. (<span>2024</span>) used an integrated genome–epigenome index framework to show that certain native populations of a widespread invasive species tracked environmental changes with minimal maladaptation. Thus, these populations may be particularly likely to seed new invasions under climate change (Chen et al. <span>2024</span>). This finding calls for a management paradigm shift from reacting to established invaders to proactively monitoring and managing native-range populations that could become future invaders. Together, these papers contribute trait-informed toolkits for forecasting and mitigating invasion under both gradual and extreme environmental change.</p><p>Within this theme, three studies (Buttimer et al. <span>2025</span>; Mantoani et al. <span>2025</span>; Zhao et al. <span>2025</span>) investigated how climate extremes and environmental stressors influence invasion performance, resilience, and ecological outcomes. These studies symmetrically revealed that climatic extremes and abiotic stressors could reconfigure invasion performance, sometimes in counterintuitive ways. Warming extremes often affect native and non-native species differently, with evidence that the former can sometimes display greater resistance to escalating stressors, complicating the expectation that warming universally favors invaders (Zhao et al. <span>2025</span>). Conversely, extreme cold episodes create dynamic, transient windows that can either set back invaders or remove native competitors depending on timing and life history (Mantoani et al. <span>2025</span>). Experimental drought work on amphibian–pathogen systems showed a striking trade-off; drought suppressed pathogen abundance, but increased transmission and disrupted hosts' protective skin microbiomes, counterintuitively amplifying disease risk despite lower pathogen load (Buttimer et al. <span>2025</span>). These findings stress that extremes can alter not just establishment and spread, but also epidemiological dynamics and community resilience. Therefore, monitoring and management must explicitly account for extreme event contexts and non-linear responses.</p><p>Two complementary studies (Sun et al. <span>2025</span>; He et al. <span>2025</span>) in this theme investigated how invasions reshape ecological feedback and ecosystem functions. By linking invasion dynamics to belowground feedback and carbon-cycle consequences, these studies showed that invasions can generate self-reinforcing ecosystem change. Integrating eco-evolutionary dynamics and plant–soil feedback demonstrated how warming and biocontrol herbivory interact with soil community shifts to modify an invader's spread potential—feedback that can either accelerate or dampen expansion depending on microbial and herbivore responses (Sun et al. <span>2025</span>). Combining meta-analysis and empirical work showed that plant invasions commonly elevate soil microbial biomass carbon, with implications for soil carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and long-term ecosystem function (He et al. <span>2025</span>). Both studies illuminated mechanistic pathways through which invasions alter ecosystem processes and generate feedbacks that in turn reshape invasion trajectories and carbon budgets—a critical link for scaling local invasions to global biogeochemical consequences.</p><p>Two papers (Buttimer et al. <span>2025</span>; Zhou et al. <span>2024</span>) in this theme explored the ways pathogens, vectors, and biosecurity risks interact with environmental change to amplify invasion impacts. Complex drought × disease interactions in amphibians can suppress pathogen prevalence while simultaneously increasing host susceptibility and transmission potential through microbiome disruption, complicating straightforward mitigation (Buttimer et al. <span>2025</span>). In an invasive pathogen–vector system, climate-driven expansion of the vector and increased host vulnerability can shift productive forests from carbon sinks to carbon sources (Zhou et al. <span>2024</span>). Both studies highlight that accurate invasion-risk assessment must explicitly account for host–pathogen–vector ecology and biosecurity pathways, as ignoring these interactions risks underestimating biodiversity loss and carbon-cycle consequences under changing climates.</p><p>In the rapidly changing Anthropocene, biological invasions are both drivers and consequences of global change, posing significant threats to ecosystems, economies, and human well-being. Emerging research highlights that invasions have been shaped by a complex interplay of multiple global change stressors and anthropogenic impacts, including climate change, land-use alteration, and global trade, which not only facilitate the spread of invasive species but also modulate the vulnerability of native communities (Early et al. <span>2016</span>; Ortiz et al. <span>2023</span>; Gallardo et al. <span>2024</span>). Evidence increasingly shows that the causes and consequences of global change-driven invasions are far more complex than previously understood (Ortiz et al. <span>2023</span>; Gallardo et al. <span>2024</span>). Therefore, concurrent research on multiple stressors, with the integration of knowledge from multiple disciplines, is needed to improve predictions. Integrative research is a particularly powerful means to advance our understanding of invasion science and ecosystem resilience to invasions and other global change-driven impacts. Furthermore, advancing theoretical frameworks, such as multiscenario integrative models spanning from molecular to ecosystem levels, while incorporating ecology, evolution, and social sciences, offers comprehensive insights into invasion dynamics. Simultaneously, technical innovations, including environmental DNA/RNA (eDNA/eRNA) monitoring, remote sensing, and big data-driven artificial intelligence approaches, enable large-scale detection and tracking of invasions. Integrating these theoretical and technical approaches supports global, interdisciplinary strategies for scenario-based planning, proactive management, and informed development of policies to mitigate, anticipate, and manage biological invasions under global change.</p><p>Global change, including biological invasions, is a major driver of biodiversity loss and ecosystem transformation worldwide. This Special Issue addresses this urgent challenge by presenting research that advances understanding of invasion processes and their ecological consequences, while offering insights to support ecosystem protection, restoration, and adaptive management. As global change continues to reshape the biosphere, invasion science provides essential tools for predicting biodiversity responses, informing conservation strategies, and guiding sustainable management practices. We anticipate that this collection will stimulate further interdisciplinary and international collaboration, further fostering deeper integration of invasion biology and conservation science to address the pressing challenges of a rapidly changing world.</p><p><b>Aibin Zhan:</b> conceptualization, writing – review and editing, writing – original draft, project administration. <b>Dan Bock:</b> writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. <b>Elizabeta Briski:</b> writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. <b>Robert Colautti:</b> writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. <b>Juntao Hu:</b> writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. <b>Hugh MacIsaac:</b> writing – original draft, writing – review and editing.</p><p>The authors declare no conflicts of interest.</p>","PeriodicalId":175,"journal":{"name":"Global Change Biology","volume":"31 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.70530","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Change Biology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70530","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The Anthropocene is characterized by accelerating changes in climate, land use, pollution, and global connectivity, largely reshaping ecosystems across spatial and temporal scales (Keys et al. 2019; Willcock et al. 2023). These rapid transformations frequently outpace the adaptive capacity of native species, contributing to widespread biodiversity loss and, possibly, to a 6th mass extinction (Barnosky et al. 2011; Hoffmann and Sgrò 2011). In contrast, invasive species often thrive in disturbed environments, thereby further exacerbating ecological disruptions across diverse ecosystems (Gu et al. 2023). As such, biological invasions have emerged not only as a consequence of global change but also as a significant driver of further environmental degradation (Sage 2020). Increasingly, evidence indicates that the interactions between biological invasions and other global change drivers are complex, nonlinear, and can often produce unexpected economic, ecological, or evolutionary outcomes (Ricciardi et al. 2021; Hu et al. 2025). For example, global change-induced environmental extremes can result in rapid evolution in invasive species, which can enhance the probability of invasion success and alter species interactions and ecosystem functioning (Moran and Alexander 2014; Borden and Flory 2021). Thus, there exists an urgent need to deepen our understanding of the complex ecological and evolutionary dynamics underlying interactions between biological invasions and global change, and, more importantly, to develop effective management solutions.
Over the past decade, research has advanced from treating invasions as isolated phenomena to examining how multiple global change drivers shape the entire invasion process, spanning transport, introduction, establishment, spread, and impact. Recent studies increasingly investigate invasions across multiple levels, ranging from individuals and populations to species and communities, while integrating ecological and evolutionary principles to elucidate the dynamics and mechanisms underlying invasion success (e.g., Chapple et al. 2022; Hu et al. 2025; Zarri et al. 2025). Moreover, the integration of big data and artificial intelligence allows the development of climate-smart, adaptive management strategies that provide insights from diverse disciplines, including multi-omics and socioeconomics (e.g., Tuia et al. 2022; Thorogood et al. 2023).
As a reflection of the growing scientific interest in this topic, this Global Change Biology Special Issue titled “The ecology and evolution of invasive species under global change” attracted more than 120 submissions. The 17 published papers present both empirical and conceptual advances, shedding light on how invasive species interact with multiple dimensions of global change across scales, ranging from molecular to ecosystem levels. These studies highlight the importance of viewing invasive species not only as threats to be managed, but also as natural experiments that provide valuable insights into how life responds to environmental disruptions.
Collectively, the 17 articles published in this Special Issue span diverse taxa and ecosystems, encompassing field studies, laboratory experiments, meta-analyses, and methodological innovations. These papers also thoroughly cover research frontiers and compelling questions in biological invasions under global change, including the ways global change drivers reshape invasion pathways and risks, management frameworks and decision tools for climate-smart biosecurity, functional traits and adaptive strategies underlying invasion success, extreme events and stressors tipping the balance of invasion outcomes, effects of invasions on ecosystem processes such as soil dynamics and carbon cycling, as well as how pathogens, dispersal networks, and socioecological linkages mediate the cascading impacts of biological invasions. Together, these papers provide integrative evidence that advances invasion science and informs conservation practice and policy under accelerating global change.
Six studies (Biancolini et al. 2024; Cao Pinna et al. 2025; Deshpande et al. 2024; Marcolin et al. 2025; Rodrigues et al. 2024; Zhou et al. 2024) within this theme addressed a shared question: How does climate change determine where, when, and how invasions occur? These studies have moved from single-species, single-region forecasts to multispecies, multiscenario, and mechanistic appraisals of where and how invasions will spread under global change. Large-scale species distribution modelling (e.g., for 205 non-native mammals) identified new invasion hotspots when suitability was combined with dispersal constraints (Biancolini et al. 2024), while controlled experiments and scenario-based analyses revealed that invasion outcomes could change direction and magnitude depending on the climate scenario used (Rodrigues et al. 2024). Regionally focused, niche-dynamics studies showed frequent niche unfilling and expansion that were mediated by traits such as dispersal ability and trait variability (Cao Pinna et al. 2025). Simultaneously, empirical work documented how shifting animal movement patterns (e.g., bird migration changes) and socioeconomic urban gradients altered dispersal pathways and the provisioning of services that can facilitate spread (Deshpande et al. 2024; Marcolin et al. 2025). Finally, synthesis and mapping efforts highlighted that invasion-linked pathogen–vector systems can directly threaten major carbon sinks (Zhou et al. 2024). Together, these findings provide compelling cases for integrated invasion-risk assessments that explicitly combine climate projections, changing dispersal networks, species traits, and socioecological dynamics.
Four studies (Chen et al. 2024; Colberg et al. 2024; Dolan et al. 2025; Zhao et al. 2024) in this theme addressed the question: What conceptual and methodological tools allow managers and policymakers to anticipate future invasion threats and adapt interventions effectively under rapid global change? These studies approach invasion management not through static risk identification, but rather through actionable decision-support frameworks that explicitly incorporate climate uncertainty, pathways, and biological adaptation. Reviews and conceptual papers set out climate-smart principles and managerial priorities (Colberg et al. 2024), while mathematically explicit prioritization tools translate multidimensional risk (suitability × pathways × socioeconomics) into ranked actions for managers (Zhao et al. 2024). Other studies highlighted policy trade-offs; for example, Dolan et al. (2025) discussed how river-restoration via barrier removal may unintentionally accelerate aquatic invasions unless staged, monitored, and coupled with biosecurity measures. Importantly, integrating biological complexity, notably multi-omics measures of adaptive potential, improved the predictive accuracy of invasion-risk models and allowed managers to triage species or populations by predicted maladaptation (Chen et al. 2024). Overall, the field is converging on practical, evidence-based tools that can be embedded into policy and operational workflows under climate change.
Five studies (Chen et al. 2024; Fehlinger 2024; Mantoani et al. 2025; Nuhfer and Bradley 2025; Zhao et al. 2025) in this theme answered an interesting fundamental question: Which functional traits and adaptations determine invasion potential and guide species' responses to environmental change? Experimental comparisons and multifactor manipulations showed that invasiveness is not universally synonymous with stress tolerance and that invasive species can be more sensitive under compound, interacting stressors than native species (Zhao et al. 2025). Studies of extreme events have shown that invasion dynamics can be highly nonlinear and time-dependent, in ways that are not captured by models relying solely on long-term average climate conditions (Mantoani et al. 2025). Parallel syntheses on managed relocation and trait selection provided operational lists of high-risk traits (e.g., high reproductive output, long-distance dispersal) which can be used to balance assisted-migration decisions against invasion risk (Nuhfer and Bradley 2025). As well, a discussion of traits (e.g., ornamental appeal) and vectors/pathways (e.g., human-mediated release) highlighted sociocultural drivers that select for invasion-prone species, especially in urban and leisure contexts (Fehlinger 2024). Lastly, Chen et al. (2024) used an integrated genome–epigenome index framework to show that certain native populations of a widespread invasive species tracked environmental changes with minimal maladaptation. Thus, these populations may be particularly likely to seed new invasions under climate change (Chen et al. 2024). This finding calls for a management paradigm shift from reacting to established invaders to proactively monitoring and managing native-range populations that could become future invaders. Together, these papers contribute trait-informed toolkits for forecasting and mitigating invasion under both gradual and extreme environmental change.
Within this theme, three studies (Buttimer et al. 2025; Mantoani et al. 2025; Zhao et al. 2025) investigated how climate extremes and environmental stressors influence invasion performance, resilience, and ecological outcomes. These studies symmetrically revealed that climatic extremes and abiotic stressors could reconfigure invasion performance, sometimes in counterintuitive ways. Warming extremes often affect native and non-native species differently, with evidence that the former can sometimes display greater resistance to escalating stressors, complicating the expectation that warming universally favors invaders (Zhao et al. 2025). Conversely, extreme cold episodes create dynamic, transient windows that can either set back invaders or remove native competitors depending on timing and life history (Mantoani et al. 2025). Experimental drought work on amphibian–pathogen systems showed a striking trade-off; drought suppressed pathogen abundance, but increased transmission and disrupted hosts' protective skin microbiomes, counterintuitively amplifying disease risk despite lower pathogen load (Buttimer et al. 2025). These findings stress that extremes can alter not just establishment and spread, but also epidemiological dynamics and community resilience. Therefore, monitoring and management must explicitly account for extreme event contexts and non-linear responses.
Two complementary studies (Sun et al. 2025; He et al. 2025) in this theme investigated how invasions reshape ecological feedback and ecosystem functions. By linking invasion dynamics to belowground feedback and carbon-cycle consequences, these studies showed that invasions can generate self-reinforcing ecosystem change. Integrating eco-evolutionary dynamics and plant–soil feedback demonstrated how warming and biocontrol herbivory interact with soil community shifts to modify an invader's spread potential—feedback that can either accelerate or dampen expansion depending on microbial and herbivore responses (Sun et al. 2025). Combining meta-analysis and empirical work showed that plant invasions commonly elevate soil microbial biomass carbon, with implications for soil carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and long-term ecosystem function (He et al. 2025). Both studies illuminated mechanistic pathways through which invasions alter ecosystem processes and generate feedbacks that in turn reshape invasion trajectories and carbon budgets—a critical link for scaling local invasions to global biogeochemical consequences.
Two papers (Buttimer et al. 2025; Zhou et al. 2024) in this theme explored the ways pathogens, vectors, and biosecurity risks interact with environmental change to amplify invasion impacts. Complex drought × disease interactions in amphibians can suppress pathogen prevalence while simultaneously increasing host susceptibility and transmission potential through microbiome disruption, complicating straightforward mitigation (Buttimer et al. 2025). In an invasive pathogen–vector system, climate-driven expansion of the vector and increased host vulnerability can shift productive forests from carbon sinks to carbon sources (Zhou et al. 2024). Both studies highlight that accurate invasion-risk assessment must explicitly account for host–pathogen–vector ecology and biosecurity pathways, as ignoring these interactions risks underestimating biodiversity loss and carbon-cycle consequences under changing climates.
In the rapidly changing Anthropocene, biological invasions are both drivers and consequences of global change, posing significant threats to ecosystems, economies, and human well-being. Emerging research highlights that invasions have been shaped by a complex interplay of multiple global change stressors and anthropogenic impacts, including climate change, land-use alteration, and global trade, which not only facilitate the spread of invasive species but also modulate the vulnerability of native communities (Early et al. 2016; Ortiz et al. 2023; Gallardo et al. 2024). Evidence increasingly shows that the causes and consequences of global change-driven invasions are far more complex than previously understood (Ortiz et al. 2023; Gallardo et al. 2024). Therefore, concurrent research on multiple stressors, with the integration of knowledge from multiple disciplines, is needed to improve predictions. Integrative research is a particularly powerful means to advance our understanding of invasion science and ecosystem resilience to invasions and other global change-driven impacts. Furthermore, advancing theoretical frameworks, such as multiscenario integrative models spanning from molecular to ecosystem levels, while incorporating ecology, evolution, and social sciences, offers comprehensive insights into invasion dynamics. Simultaneously, technical innovations, including environmental DNA/RNA (eDNA/eRNA) monitoring, remote sensing, and big data-driven artificial intelligence approaches, enable large-scale detection and tracking of invasions. Integrating these theoretical and technical approaches supports global, interdisciplinary strategies for scenario-based planning, proactive management, and informed development of policies to mitigate, anticipate, and manage biological invasions under global change.
Global change, including biological invasions, is a major driver of biodiversity loss and ecosystem transformation worldwide. This Special Issue addresses this urgent challenge by presenting research that advances understanding of invasion processes and their ecological consequences, while offering insights to support ecosystem protection, restoration, and adaptive management. As global change continues to reshape the biosphere, invasion science provides essential tools for predicting biodiversity responses, informing conservation strategies, and guiding sustainable management practices. We anticipate that this collection will stimulate further interdisciplinary and international collaboration, further fostering deeper integration of invasion biology and conservation science to address the pressing challenges of a rapidly changing world.
Aibin Zhan: conceptualization, writing – review and editing, writing – original draft, project administration. Dan Bock: writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. Elizabeta Briski: writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. Robert Colautti: writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. Juntao Hu: writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. Hugh MacIsaac: writing – original draft, writing – review and editing.
人类世的特征是气候、土地利用、污染和全球连通性的加速变化,在很大程度上重塑了时空尺度上的生态系统(Keys et al. 2019; Willcock et al. 2023)。这些快速的转变经常超过本地物种的适应能力,导致广泛的生物多样性丧失,并可能导致第六次大灭绝(Barnosky et al. 2011; Hoffmann and Sgrò 2011)。相比之下,入侵物种往往在受干扰的环境中茁壮成长,从而进一步加剧了不同生态系统的生态破坏(Gu et al. 2023)。因此,生物入侵的出现不仅是全球变化的结果,也是进一步环境退化的重要驱动因素(Sage 2020)。越来越多的证据表明,生物入侵与其他全球变化驱动因素之间的相互作用是复杂的、非线性的,并且往往会产生意想不到的经济、生态或进化结果(Ricciardi et al. 2021; Hu et al. 2025)。例如,全球变化引起的极端环境可能导致入侵物种的快速进化,这可以提高入侵成功的可能性,改变物种相互作用和生态系统功能(Moran and Alexander 2014; Borden and Flory 2021)。因此,迫切需要加深我们对生物入侵与全球变化之间相互作用的复杂生态和进化动力学的理解,更重要的是,制定有效的管理解决方案。在过去的十年中,研究已经从将入侵视为孤立的现象发展到研究多种全球变化驱动因素如何塑造整个入侵过程,包括运输、引入、建立、传播和影响。最近的研究越来越多地从多个层面调查入侵,从个体和种群到物种和群落,同时整合生态和进化原理来阐明入侵成功的动态和机制(例如,Chapple等人,2022;Hu等人,2025;Zarri等人,2025)。此外,大数据和人工智能的整合使气候智能型、适应性管理策略的发展成为可能,这些策略提供了来自不同学科的见解,包括多组学和社会经济学(例如,Tuia et al. 2022; Thorogood et al. 2023)。全球变化生物学特刊题为“全球变化下入侵物种的生态和进化”,反映了科学界对这一主题日益增长的兴趣,吸引了120多份投稿。这17篇发表的论文展示了经验和概念上的进步,揭示了入侵物种如何与从分子到生态系统水平的全球变化的多个维度相互作用。这些研究强调了将入侵物种不仅视为需要管理的威胁,而且作为自然实验的重要性,为了解生命如何应对环境破坏提供了有价值的见解。本期特刊总共发表了17篇文章,涵盖了不同的分类群和生态系统,包括实地研究、实验室实验、元分析和方法创新。这些论文还全面涵盖了全球变化下生物入侵的研究前沿和引人注目的问题,包括全球变化驱动因素重塑入侵路径和风险的方式,气候智能型生物安全的管理框架和决策工具,入侵成功的功能特征和适应策略,极端事件和压力因素打破入侵结果的平衡。入侵对土壤动力学和碳循环等生态系统过程的影响,以及病原体、扩散网络和社会生态联系如何介导生物入侵的级联影响。总之,这些论文提供了综合证据,促进了入侵科学的发展,并为加速全球变化下的保护实践和政策提供了信息。该主题的六项研究(Biancolini等人,2024;Cao Pinna等人,2025;Deshpande等人,2024;Marcolin等人,2025;Rodrigues等人,2024;Zhou等人,2024)解决了一个共同的问题:气候变化如何决定入侵发生的地点、时间和方式?这些研究已经从单一物种、单一地区的预测转向了多物种、多情景和机制的评估,以评估在全球变化下入侵将在哪里以及如何传播。大型物种分布模型(例如,针对205种非本地哺乳动物)在适宜性与扩散约束相结合时确定了新的入侵热点(Biancolini et al. 2024),而对照实验和基于场景的分析显示,入侵结果可能会根据所使用的气候情景改变方向和规模(Rodrigues et al. 2024)。 以区域为重点的生态位动力学研究表明,生态位的频繁空缺和扩张是由分散能力和性状变异等性状介导的(Cao Pinna et al. 2025)。同时,实证工作记录了不断变化的动物运动模式(如鸟类迁徙变化)和社会经济城市梯度如何改变传播途径和促进传播的服务提供(Deshpande et al. 2024; Marcolin et al. 2025)。最后,综合和制图工作强调,与入侵相关的病原体载体系统可以直接威胁主要的碳汇(Zhou et al. 2024)。总之,这些发现为综合入侵风险评估提供了令人信服的案例,该评估明确结合了气候预测、不断变化的扩散网络、物种特征和社会生态动态。这一主题的四项研究(Chen et al. 2024; Colberg et al. 2024; Dolan et al. 2025; Zhao et al. 2024)解决了这样一个问题:什么样的概念和方法工具可以让管理者和决策者预测未来的入侵威胁,并在快速的全球变化下有效地适应干预措施?这些研究不是通过静态的风险识别,而是通过明确结合气候不确定性、途径和生物适应的可操作的决策支持框架来处理入侵管理。评论和概念论文列出了气候智能原则和管理优先事项(Colberg等人,2024),而数学上明确的优先级工具将多维风险(适用性×途径×社会经济学)转化为管理者的排名行动(Zhao等人,2024)。其他研究强调了政策权衡;例如,Dolan等人(2025)讨论了除非采取分阶段、监测和生物安全措施,否则通过移除屏障来恢复河流可能会无意中加速水生生物的入侵。重要的是,整合生物复杂性,特别是适应潜力的多组学测量,提高了入侵风险模型的预测准确性,并允许管理人员通过预测适应不良来分类物种或种群(Chen et al. 2024)。总体而言,该领域正在集中开发实用的、以证据为基础的工具,这些工具可以嵌入气候变化下的政策和业务工作流程。这一主题的五项研究(Chen et al. 2024; Fehlinger 2024; Mantoani et al. 2025; Nuhfer and Bradley 2025; Zhao et al. 2025)回答了一个有趣的基本问题:哪些功能特征和适应决定了入侵潜力并指导物种对环境变化的反应?实验比较和多因素操作表明,入侵性并不完全等同于应激耐受性,入侵物种在复合、相互作用的应激源下可能比本地物种更敏感(Zhao et al. 2025)。对极端事件的研究表明,入侵动态可能是高度非线性和时间依赖性的,仅依赖长期平均气候条件的模型无法捕捉到这些动态(Mantoani et al. 2025)。对管理迁移和性状选择的并行综合提供了高风险性状(例如,高繁殖产出,远距离分散)的操作列表,可用于平衡辅助迁移决策与入侵风险(Nuhfer和Bradley 2025)。此外,对特征(如观赏吸引力)和媒介/途径(如人类介导的释放)的讨论强调了选择易入侵物种的社会文化驱动因素,特别是在城市和休闲环境中(Fehlinger 2024)。最后,Chen等人(2024)使用了一个整合的基因组-表观基因组指数框架,表明广泛入侵物种的某些本地种群以最小的适应不良跟踪环境变化。因此,在气候变化的影响下,这些种群可能特别容易引发新的入侵(Chen et al. 2024)。这一发现要求管理模式从对已建立的入侵者的反应转变为主动监测和管理可能成为未来入侵者的本地种群。总之,这些论文为在渐进和极端环境变化下预测和减轻入侵提供了特征信息工具包。在这一主题下,三项研究(Buttimer et al. 2025; Mantoani et al. 2025; Zhao et al. 2025)调查了极端气候和环境压力因素如何影响入侵性能、恢复力和生态结果。这些研究对称地揭示了极端气候和非生物压力源可以重新配置入侵行为,有时以违反直觉的方式。极端变暖对本地和非本地物种的影响往往不同,有证据表明,前者有时对不断升级的压力源表现出更大的抵抗力,这使得变暖普遍有利于入侵者的预期复杂化(Zhao et al. 2025)。 相反,极端寒冷的事件创造了动态的、短暂的窗口,根据时间和生命史,可以击退入侵者或消除本地竞争对手(Mantoani et al. 2025)。两栖动物-病原体系统的实验性干旱研究显示了一种惊人的权衡;干旱抑制了病原体的丰度,但增加了传播并破坏了宿主的保护性皮肤微生物群,尽管病原体负荷较低,但与直觉相反,却放大了疾病风险(Buttimer et al. 2025)。这些发现强调,极端天气不仅可以改变建立和传播,还可以改变流行病学动态和社区复原力。因此,监测和管理必须明确地考虑极端事件背景和非线性响应。该主题的两项互补研究(Sun et al. 2025; He et al. 2025)调查了入侵如何重塑生态反馈和生态系统功能。通过将入侵动态与地下反馈和碳循环后果联系起来,这些研究表明,入侵可以产生自我强化的生态系统变化。整合生态进化动力学和植物-土壤反馈证明了升温和生物控制草食如何与土壤群落变化相互作用,以改变入侵者的传播潜在反馈,这种潜在反馈可以加速或抑制扩张,这取决于微生物和草食动物的反应(Sun et al. 2025)。综合meta分析和实证研究表明,植物入侵通常会提高土壤微生物生物量碳,对土壤碳储量、养分循环和长期生态系统功能具有影响(He et al. 2025)。这两项研究都阐明了入侵改变生态系统过程的机制途径,并产生反馈,从而重塑入侵轨迹和碳预算——这是将局部入侵扩大到全球生物地球化学后果的关键环节。这一主题的两篇论文(Buttimer et al. 2025; Zhou et al. 2024)探讨了病原体、媒介和生物安全风险如何与环境变化相互作用,从而放大入侵影响。两栖动物中复杂的干旱与疾病相互作用可以抑制病原体的流行,同时通过微生物群破坏增加宿主的易感性和传播潜力,使直接的缓解复杂化(Buttimer et al. 2025)。在侵入性病原体-媒介系统中,气候驱动的媒介扩张和宿主脆弱性的增加可以将生产性森林从碳汇转变为碳源(Zhou et al. 2024)。这两项研究都强调,准确的入侵风险评估必须明确考虑宿主-病原体-媒介生态学和生物安全途径,因为忽视这些相互作用可能会低估气候变化下生物多样性丧失和碳循环后果。在快速变化的人类世中,生物入侵既是全球变化的驱动因素,也是全球变化的后果,对生态系统、经济和人类福祉构成重大威胁。新兴研究强调,入侵是由多种全球变化压力源和人为影响(包括气候变化、土地利用改变和全球贸易)的复杂相互作用形成的,这不仅促进了入侵物种的传播,还调节了本土社区的脆弱性(Early et al. 2016; Ortiz et al. 2023; Gallardo et al. 2024)。越来越多的证据表明,全球变化驱动的入侵的原因和后果远比以前所理解的要复杂得多(Ortiz et al. 2023; Gallardo et al. 2024)。因此,需要对多个应激源进行并行研究,整合多学科知识,以提高预测能力。综合研究是促进我们对入侵科学和生态系统对入侵和其他全球变化驱动影响的恢复力的理解的一种特别有力的手段。此外,先进的理论框架,如从分子到生态系统水平的多场景综合模型,同时结合生态学,进化论和社会科学,为入侵动力学提供了全面的见解。同时,技术创新,包括环境DNA/RNA (eDNA/eRNA)监测、遥感和大数据驱动的人工智能方法,使大规模检测和跟踪入侵成为可能。整合这些理论和技术方法,支持基于场景的规划、主动管理和知情政策制定的全球跨学科战略,以减轻、预测和管理全球变化下的生物入侵。包括生物入侵在内的全球变化是全球生物多样性丧失和生态系统转型的主要驱动因素。本期特刊通过介绍对入侵过程及其生态后果的深入了解的研究来解决这一紧迫挑战,同时为支持生态系统保护、恢复和适应性管理提供见解。 随着全球变化继续重塑生物圈,入侵科学为预测生物多样性响应、为保护策略提供信息和指导可持续管理实践提供了重要工具。我们期待这个集合将刺激进一步的跨学科和国际合作,进一步促进入侵生物学和保护科学的更深层次的整合,以应对快速变化的世界的紧迫挑战。詹爱斌:构思、撰写—审编、撰写—初稿、项目管理。丹·博克:写作-原稿,写作-审查和编辑。伊丽莎白·布里斯基:写作-原稿,写作-审查和编辑。罗伯特·科劳蒂:写作-原稿,写作-审查和编辑。胡军涛:写作-原稿,写作-审稿,编辑。休·麦克艾萨克:写作-原稿,写作-审查和编辑。作者声明无利益冲突。
期刊介绍:
Global Change Biology is an environmental change journal committed to shaping the future and addressing the world's most pressing challenges, including sustainability, climate change, environmental protection, food and water safety, and global health.
Dedicated to fostering a profound understanding of the impacts of global change on biological systems and offering innovative solutions, the journal publishes a diverse range of content, including primary research articles, technical advances, research reviews, reports, opinions, perspectives, commentaries, and letters. Starting with the 2024 volume, Global Change Biology will transition to an online-only format, enhancing accessibility and contributing to the evolution of scholarly communication.