Journalist Asher Elbein interviewed me for his recent article in Undark Magazine. In his article, he reviews the perspectives in invasion biology that are shifting away from only investigating the negative impacts of non-native species to including potential benefits.
During the interview, we discussed how it was to be one of the early researchers to describe potential benefits that can be created by non-native species (Gleditsch and Carlo 2011) and the shifting focus within invasion biology to also investigate these potential benefits to ensure control strategies do not cause more harm than good. The benefit I observed in my early research was between non-native bush honeysuckles (Lonicera spp.) and generalist birds like the American robin (Turdus migratorius) and gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). This relationship may have had potential benefits for the dispersal of some native fruit species as well.
The article is well written, researched, and balanced and gives a great overview of the current discussion in conservation science about non-native species.
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