The United States has thousands of invasive species, representing a sizable, but unknown burden to the national economy. Given the potential economic repercussions of invasive species, quantifying these costs is of paramount importance both for national economies and invasion management. Here, we used a novel global database of invasion costs (InvaCost) to quantify the overall costs of invasive species in the United States across spatiotemporal, taxonomic, and socioeconomic scales. From 1960 to 2020, reported invasion costs totaled $4.52 trillion (USD 2017). Considering only observed, highly reliable costs, this total cost reached $1.22 trillion with an average annual cost of $19.94 billion/year. These costs increased from $2.00 billion annually between 1960 and 1969 to $21.08 billion annually between 2010 and 2020. Most costs (73%) were related to resource damages and losses ($896.22 billion), as opposed to management expenditures ($46.54 billion). Moreover, the majority of costs were reported from invaders from terrestrial habitats ($643.51 billion, 53%) and agriculture was the most impacted sector ($509.55 billion). From a taxonomic perspective, mammals ($234.71 billion) and insects ($126.42 billion) were the taxonomic groups responsible for the greatest costs. Considering the apparent rising costs of invasions, coupled with increasing numbers of invasive species and the current lack of cost information for most known invaders, our findings provide critical information for policymakers and managers.

Auburn University School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences 602 Duncan Dr Auburn AL 36849 USA

Ecology Evolution and Natural Resources Rutgers University 14 College Farm Road New Brunswick NJ 08901 USA

GEOMAR Helmholtz Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel Düsternbrooker Weg 20 24105 Kiel Germany; School of Biological Sciences Queen's University Belfast 19 Chlorine Gardens BT9 5DL Belfast Northern Ireland United Kingdom

Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt Department of River Ecology and Conservation Gelnhausen Germany; University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses Zátiší 728 2 389 25 Vodňany Czech Republic

Université Paris Saclay CNRS AgroParisTech Ecologie Systématique Evolution 91405 Orsay France

University of South Florida Department of Integrative Biology Tampa FL 33610 USA

Citace poskytuje Crossref.org

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