Comprehensive monitoring systems that can detect new AIS, new impacts, and range 
changes as a result of climate change must be developed, established, and funded. Ideally, these 
systems should be accessible to managers within a state and among states to ensure 
dissemination of important information. The systems should also be easy to update as more 
information on AIS and climate change becomes available. Pathway analysis and species 
prediction models also need to be modified and/or developed to address the multiple factors that 
drive invasions. Models that incorporate predictions of changes in air temperature, water 
temperature, precipitation, and sea level, may provide highly useful projections on changes in the 
movement of species’ range boundaries. In response, regulatory requirements and education 
efforts can be adjusted accordingly. Each of these steps could benefit from additional research 
that specifically addresses how current practices may need to change in light of climate change. 
4.3. IDENTIFYING VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS UNDER CHANGING 
CONDITIONS AND DESIGNING RESILIENT RESTORATION 
Effective AIS prevention efforts must include identification of ecosystems that may be 
more vulnerable to invasion under changing environmental conditions. This effort should be 
complemented by identification of key restoration opportunities. Restoration of ecosystems is an 
important aspect to comprehensive prevention strategies, as robust habitats are less vulnerable to 
invasion. For these reasons, restoration should be designed to thrive under, or at least withstand, 
the changing temperatures, precipitation patterns, and sea level changes that are predicted to 
result from climate change. Both identifying vulnerable ecosystems and restoring ecosystems to 
become less vulnerable are activities that would benefit from additional research that includes 
climate change interactions. As a first step, states could begin collecting data on vulnerable 
ecosystems and restoration techniques appropriate for these ecosystems; if the data already exist, 
these areas could be used to test restoration techniques in an adaptive-management framework. 
4.4. IMPROVING CONTROL MEASURES UNDER CHANGING CONDITIONS 
States should evaluate control measures for efficacy under the altered conditions that may 
result from a changing climate and should adjust AIS management priorities and plans 
accordingly. Biological, chemical, manual, and mechanical control methods may all be affected 
by climate change. Managers will need to coordinate with scientists to obtain any existing 
information on different control methods and how climate-change effects, such as increased 
temperatures and altered precipitation patterns, may affect their efficacy, so that states may be 
better prepared to adapt their control programs. Because more research may be needed to 
identify how climate change will affect control mechanisms, state managers will need to 
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