A new method for modelling biological invasions from early spread data accounting for anthropogenic dispersal.

ABSTRACT: Biological invasions are one of the major causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. In spite of human aided (anthropogenic) dispersal being the key element in the spread of invasive species, no framework published so far accounts for its peculiar characteristics, such as very rapid dispersal and independence from the existing species distribution. We present a new method for modelling biological invasions using historical spatio-temporal records. This method first discriminates between data points of anthropogenic origin and those originating from natural dispersal, then estimates the natural dispersal kernel. We use the expectation-maximisation algorithm for the first step; we then use Ripley's K-function as a spatial similarity metric to estimate the dispersal kernel. This is done accountin

SUBMITTER: Butikofer L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6258513 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature