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Section Symposium

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Relationship Status It’s Complicated: How Interactions Between Non-natives Affects Invasion Biology

The role of plant invasions as drivers of the global macroecology of insect invasions

Wednesday, November 13, 2024
10:15 AM – 10:35 AM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 122 A, PCC
Oral Presentation
Insect invasions have a wide range of ecological impacts, primarily through their feeding on plants, but also by outcompeting native insect species, disrupting insect-plant mutualisms, altering pollination services and vectoring animal and plant diseases. International trade, human travel, climate change, and land use change have been implicated as drivers of insect invasions. However, one crucial factor that is responsible for the proliferation of thousands of insect invasions worldwide is the proliferation of non-native plants. The intimate relationships that plants and insects form are the result of a long shared evolutionary history. These close associations are highly relevant to understanding patterns of historical insect invasions. The accelerating spread of non-native plants across the globe creates an ideal situation for invading insects. Invasions by non-native plants create ecological niches that facilitate herbivore establishments. When insects are transported to novel regions, they no longer face a landscape devoid of their preferred host plants, but instead are re-united with their ancestorial hosts which gives them an opportunity to establish and thrive. Here I present results of macroecological studies of historical insect invasions worldwide to document the crucial role of plant invasions as drivers of insect invasions. In addition, I describe several case studies of well-known plant invasions that have triggered subsequent non-native insect establishments.