Readings

Massive yet grossly underestimated global costsof invasive insects

Bradshaw, C. J. A., Leroy, B., Bellard, C., Roiz, D., Albert, C., Fournier, A., … Courchamp, F. (2016). Massive yet grossly underestimated global costs of invasive insects. Nature Communications, 7, 12986. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12986

• Quote that 87% of non-native terrestrial invertebrates in Europe are insects
  • whilst true, given that 80% of invertebrates are insects, it\’s not surprising!
  • it certainly helps their story though
• essentially a literature review
  • each study was classified by reproducibility — as in, enough good information to calculate costs
  • as opposed to quality, as they say there\’s no objective, standard methodology for this
  • this is a good reason to develop this!
• they discuss that regional relative costs are most likely a function of research effort, as opposed to actual differences in cost
• the costs are most likely gross underestimates
  • due to limited studies and poor coverage in under-developed countries
• total cost estimate of USD\$70 billion/year