China's invasive alien plants have exceeded 500 species
Tropical Mikania micrantha, water hyacinth in the south, Ageratina adenophora in the southwest…… In recent years, these exposed invasive alien plants have caused serious losses to China's ecosystems and economic development. The latest survey shows that China now has more than 500 species of invasive alien plants.
The Shanghai Chenshan Plant Science Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences / Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, together with Shenyang University, Beijing Normal University, Hexi University, Hanshan Normal University and 8 other research institutions across the country, after 3 years of field surveys, specimen sorting and literature review, has newly identified 515 species of invasive alien plants in China belonging to 72 families and 285 genera. Of the 100 most threatening alien species in the world published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 50 have been found in China.
Based on biological characteristics and ecological traits, natural geographical distribution information of their places of origin, scope of invasion, harm to the ecological environment and impact on the national economy, the researchers divided China's 515 species of invasive alien plants into 5 levels. Among them, level 1 malignant invasive plants number 34 species; level 2 severe invasive plants number 69 species; level 3 local invasive plants number 85 species; level 4 general invasive plants number 80 species; and level 5 species requiring observation number 247 species.
The survey found that from cities to villages, from the coast to the interior, nearly all of China's provinces have been “overrun” by invasive alien plants, and invasive alien plants have even been found in many national nature reserves. The southwest and southeast coastal regions are the “disaster areas” of alien plant invasion. Among the 515 species of invasive alien plants, 108 species are distributed in the southeast coastal region. Yunnan Province has the most invasive alien plants, reaching 334 species; the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has the fewest invasive alien plants, at 43 species.
Among the alien plants invading China, those native to South America make up the largest proportion, followed by North America, and the sum of the two accounts for more than half of all invasive plants. Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae constitute the main body of China's invasive alien plants; the “three great families” together contain 222 species of invasive alien plants.
Academician Chen Xiaoya, director of the Shanghai Chenshan Plant Science Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, said that the phenomenon of biological invasion has spread throughout the world and is not a problem of any single country or region. With the acceleration of global economic integration and China's economic development, the process of biological invasion in China is also accelerating. China has a vast territory, spanning nearly 50 latitudes and 5 climatic zones, so most alien species from around the world can find suitable habitats in China. To effectively prevent and control invasive alien plants, first-hand data are needed to clarify the baseline.
On the basis of the Survey Report on Invasive Alien Plants in China, the Ministry of Science and Technology recently officially launched in Shanghai the compilation of the Flora of Invasive Alien Plants in China, comprehensively sorting out baseline data on China's invasive alien plants, “establishing files and records” for more than 500 species of invasive alien plants, and strictly controlling them.
⟦NL> The Flora of Invasive Alien Plants in China is planned to be completed in four years as a five-volume work, recording more than 500 species (including related closely related species) of invasive alien plants. It will not only introduce in detail the transmission history of each invasive species, the current status and harmfulness of its invasion distribution in China, and the distinguishing characteristics from native closely related species, but will also collect images and specimens of each invasive plant. Richly illustrated with text and pictures, it will be built into a database open to the public.