Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Giaccaria Sergio
Author-Email: sergio.giaccaria@unito.it
Author-Name: Dalmazzone Silvana
Author-Email: silvana.dalmazzone@unito.it
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Turin
Author-Workplace-Homepage: http://www.est.unito.it/
Title: Socio-economic drivers of biological invasions. A worldwide, bio-geographical analysis of trade flows and local environmental quality
Abstract:  The introduction of harmful non-indigenous species has long been acknowledged to depend both on the 
propagule pressure imposed by the openness to international trade, and on the health of the receiving ecosystem, 
largely determined by the level of anthropogenic disturbance due to local economic activities. We estimate the 
relative weight of the socio-economic drivers of biological invasions, for 115 countries in all continents and 
for invasive species of all taxa. Our results confirm the theoretical prior of trade, agricultural imports in 
primis, as an important driver of biological invasions, but also shed more light on the factors of disturbance 
to local ecosystems that emerge as playing an even more important role. We then develop an analytical model 
linking introductions of invasive species to import volumes disaggregated by country of origin, and weighted by 
bioclimatic similarity between source and destination country of the trade flow. The results allow us to identify 
the relative risk of biological invasions entailed by different directions of trade among 134 countries aggregated 
in geographic regions.
Length: 23 pages
Creation-Date: 2010-01
File-URL: http://www.est.unito.it/do/home.pl/Download?doc=/allegati/wp2010dip/3_wp_giaccaria_dalmazzone.pdf
File-Format: Application/PDF
Handle: RePEc:uto:dipeco:201003