The sale of ornamental nonnative plants is a primary pathway of invasive plant introduction into the US. As a result, many nonnative plants have been identified as noxious weeds by federal and state governments, or as problematic invasive plants by agencies and nonprofit organizations. However, it is unclear whether identifying a species as invasive has curtailed its sale as an ornamental. Using the Google search engine and a database of nursery catalogs, we found that 61% of 1285 plant species identified as invasive in the US remain available through the plant trade, including 50% of state‐regulated species and 20% of federal noxious weeds. Vendors offering invasive plants were located in all lower 48 states. The widespread availability of invasive plants in the US is likely a symptom of disjointed state regulations that fail to protect ecosystems and economies. Regional regulation coupled with outreach to growers and consumers is needed to reduce the ongoing propagation of invasive plants in the US.
Introduced invasive plants are a major environmental problem, but public interest in invasive plants is generally considered low compared to climate change and threatened flagship species, hindering support for effective management and policy. To understand what does drive public interest in invasive plants in the US, we investigated Google Trends search data from 2010 to 2020 for 209 introduced plant species found in the continental US. Using a phylogenetically-controlled structural equation model, we investigated three hypothesized drivers of interest: (1) plant abundance as quantified by national and state-level occurrence records in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, (2) four key plant traits that might influence plant conspicuousness to the general public: ornamental use, human health risks, monoculture formation, and plants with positive economic value, and (3) media coverage, in particular the volume and sentiment of news articles over the same 10-year period. Public search interest was highest for the most abundant introduced species and those with human health risks, but significantly lower for ornamentals. News coverage was mostly negatively toned and disproportionately focused on a relatively small group of widespread invasive species, with significantly lower and more positively-worded coverage of ornamentals. Ultimately, we suggest that a narrow emphasis on a few highly covered ‘notorious’ invasive plant species, with lower and more positive coverage of ornamental introduced species, could send mixed messages and weaken public awareness of the threats of biological invasions. However, the generally strong linkages between public search interest and media coverage of invasive plants suggests ample opportunity to improve messaging and increase public awareness.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10424583
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science + Business Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Biological Invasions
- Volume:
- 25
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 1387-3547
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 3193-3205
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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