Every day, hundreds of different plant species – many of them listed as invasive – are traded online worldwide on auction platforms. This exacerbates the problem of uncontrollable biological invasions.
Goldenrod, Himalayan balsam, Chinese windmill palm: three plants, one problem. All are native to continents other than Europe, but were introduced to Switzerland as garden or ornamental plants. At some point they “escaped” into the wild, where they now threaten the native flora.
This phenomenon isn’t limited to Switzerland: biological invasions happen on every continent every day. A major driver of this is global trade, which is increasingly shifting to the internet and being conducted on auction platforms like eBay. As a result, one click is all it takes to spread potentially invasive plants from continent to continent – and unintentionally encouraging biological invasions.
Monitoring online auctions
But how much of the global trade in invasive plants is done online? To get an estimate, a group of four researchers at ETH Zurich led by Christoph Kueffer, senior lecturer at the Institute of Integrative Biology, monitored online trade of about two thirds of the world’s flora on eBay plus nine other online trading platforms.
For 50 days, the researchers tracked which plant species were offered for sale in various countries, and how often. Their efforts were aided by a software program developed especially for the study. In addition, the researchers looked to lists of invasive plants, kept by various bodies including the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), for information about whether the plants for sale were classified as invasive somewhere in the world.
The program that automatically searches the sales platforms was written by Luc Humair from ETH’s Department of Computer Science and Fabian Kuhn, an ETH alumnus, who now works at the University of Freiburg (Germany). The eBay data the researchers used was collected exclusively from publicly available listings. “eBay benefits from making sale listings accessible to computer programs that can systematically search for and analyse online content automatically,” says Luc Humair. This is what made the ETH monitoring project possible.
Even so, the researchers’ program could do no more than monitor the supply side. It couldn’t determine if buyers and sellers in particular geographic regions were actually concluding business. “Naturally it would be interesting to factor the destination into the monitoring process,” says Luc Humair. However, that information is personal and can be collected only with the cooperation of eBay or the other providers.
Potentially huge trading volumes
What the program was able to discover despite this limitation surprised the study’s lead author, Franziska Humair, who holds a doctorate from ETH: “We didn’t expect the global trade in plants that are known to be invasive to be so extensive.” The study was recently published inConservation Biology.
Over the 50 days of the monitoring phase, the researchers found 2,625 different plant species offered for sale on eBay. That corresponds to about 1.4 percent of the seed plants they were looking for. Of all the plants for sale, 510 are known to be invasive in at least one region somewhere in the world. And out of that group, 35 are on the IUCN’s list of the 100 worst invasive species.
Invasive species often up for sale
Passiflora edulis, or passionfruit, is the invasive plant most often offered for sale. It turns up about 90 times a day, offered by dealers from 17 countries spread over five major geographic regions. This species is highly invasive in the tropics. The second most frequently offered plant is the cornflower Centaurea cyanus, which is put up for sale more than 80 times a day on average. Deemed invasive in certain parts of the USA, this species is traded by dealers located in 10 countries in five regions. Meanwhile, the plant put up for sale most often has not yet proved invasive. Native to the steppes of Africa and Arabia, the desert roseAdenium obesum is listed for sale more than 3,100 times a day on average by dealers from 12 countries.
The plant sellers found in the study were located in 65 countries. Offers to sell invasive species came from 55 of these countries, including Australia. Dealers there offer invasive plants – that can be harmful in other parts of the world,– on a grand scale. “That was unexpected, since the Australians don’t allow you to bring any invasive plants across their borders. But surprisingly, there are apparently no controls in place to make sure potentially harmful plants don’t leave the continent,” says Kueffer.
Read more: Trade in invasive plants is blossoming
The Latest on: Trade in invasive plants
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Trade in invasive plants” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Trade in invasive plants
- DLNR looking to combat invasive specieson May 9, 2024 at 5:55 am
Many of these invasive corals are popular in the aquarium trade and if people leave the island or just donʻt want it anymore theyʻll just dump it and all its contents into the nearest water body. This ...
- WRISC asks residents to join the fight against invasive plantson May 6, 2024 at 4:39 pm
None of the dead shrubs at the Dickinson Conservation District office are native to Upper Michigan or Wisconsin.Landowners removed them from their properties as part of the Wild Rivers Invasive ...
- Here's how you can get paid to remove invasive plant species from your homeon May 6, 2024 at 8:48 am
If you are looking to remove invasive species from your home, you could get help paying for the work.Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District and Hamilton County Invasives Partnership are ...
- Wondering about invasive and toxic worms in Ontario? Here's what to watch foron May 4, 2024 at 7:41 am
Three iNaturalist users recently reported hammerhead worm sightings in and around Hamilton. The citizen science tool allows people to post photos of species and is a tool scientists often use to help ...
- How exotic animals end up next store: 5 things to know about the illegal pet tradeon May 3, 2024 at 12:30 pm
The illegal pet trade hurts ecosystems. Exotic animals often escape from homes or are released by their owners. They become invasive species and affect animals native to Florida and their ecosystems.
- Wondering about invasive and toxic worms in Hamilton? Here's what to watch foron May 2, 2024 at 12:47 pm
Recent reported sightings of a toxic worm in Ontario have caused a stir, but if you find one in your garden, don't "freak out," says a member of a local gardening group. Cathy Kavassalis, with Master ...
- Should you kill hammerhead flatworms?on May 1, 2024 at 9:08 am
Hammerhead flatworms are spread through the horticultural trade and the movement of infested ... On iNaturalist, an invasive species reporting platform, there is evidence of Canadians mentioning ...
- Invasive termites dining in our homes: soon a reality in most citieson April 30, 2024 at 6:28 am
With climate change continuing its relentless march, the world faces not only rising temperatures and extreme weather, but also an insidious threat ...
- Invasive termites dining in our homes will soon be a reality in most cities, says researchon April 29, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Duquesne and Fournier's research emphasizes the need for a paradigm shift in how we approach invasive species modeling. By integrating connectivity variables like trade, transport, and population ...
- Endangered Specieson August 16, 2020 at 2:17 pm
hunting for wild game meat (bushmeat), introduction of invasive species into the environment, and climate change. There are international treaties and domestic laws that aim to halt the decline of ...
via Bing News