Predicted occurrence and abundance habitat suitability of invasive plants in the contiguous United States: updates for the INHABIT web tool

By

Jarnevich, Catherine
Engelstad, Peder
Williams, Demetra
Shadwell, Keanе
Reimer, Cameron
Henderson, Grace
Prevey, Janet
Pearse, Ian

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2024

Original Publication

NeoBiota : advancing research on alien species and biological invasions

Volume

96

Pages

261--278

Subjects

early detection and rapid response , land management , species distribution modelling , watch list

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sophia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.96.134842

 

Abstract

Invasive plant species have substantial negative ecological and economic impacts. Geographic information on the potential and actual distributions of invasive plants is critical for their effective management. For many regions, numerous sources of predictive geographic information exist for invasive plants, often in the form of outputs from species distribution models (SDMs). The creation of a repository of consistently produced SDMs of regional- or national-scale information predicting the potential distribution of invasive plant species could provide information to managers in the prioritisation of invasive species management. Here, we present a novel set of not only habitat suitability models for occurrence for 259 manager requested invasive plant species in the contiguous United States (USA), but also habitat suitability models for abundance (≥ 5% cover) and high abundance (≥ 25% cover). These data provide an update to the Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT; gis.usgs.gov/inhabit). This tool contains information on the majority of invasive plant species in the contiguous USA with sufficient location data for model building. INHABIT provides a canonical set of predicted geographic distributions for invasive plants in the contiguous USA that can aid in the search for new populations of invasive plant species and help create watch lists for emerging invaders. As this tool contains information on nearly all of the most problematic invasive plants in the contiguous USA, it helps in prioritising management strategies by showing which plants are already present or abundant in a land management area and which may become present or abundant in the future.