Research Article |
Corresponding author: Chika Egawa ( cegawa@affrc.go.jp ) Academic editor: Franz Essl
© 2023 Chika Egawa, Asuka Koyama.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Egawa C, Koyama A (2023) Temporal trends in the accumulation of alien vascular plant species through intentional and unintentional introductions in Japan. NeoBiota 83: 179-196. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.83.101416
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Clarifying the temporal trends of alien plant accumulation is increasingly important for informing global and national management efforts to decelerate biological invasions, following the adoption of Target 6 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. However, such trends have not yet been analysed in many countries including Japan, which has the highest number of naturalised alien plant species among islands. To clarify the past and recent trends in the accumulation of alien plant species in Japan, we compiled a dataset of the year of first record for 1,463 alien vascular plant species deliberately and accidentally introduced and analysed the changes in the annual number of first records over time for each overall, intentional and unintentional introductions. We found that, overall, the annual number of first records of alien plant species in Japan began to increase in the late 1800s, and the increase continued until the late 1950s, with an estimated maximum of 15.7 new species per year. The increase then halted by 1960 and began a slow decline; the estimated average records per year between 1991 and 2000 dropped to 13.3 species. Since 1900, the annual number of first records associated with intentional introductions has more than doubled the number linked to unintentional introductions. Additionally, the proportion of invasive species brought through intentional introductions was larger than that brought through unintentional introductions. We highlight that while Japan experienced a rapid accumulation of alien plant species, including invasive species, by the 1950s, the rate of accumulation showed signs of saturation by 1960 and has since been slowly declining. Further deceleration and prevention of the introduction of invasive alien species, as targeted in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, may be achieved through increased investment in pathway management, especially management of intentional pathways.
alien weeds, biological invasion, first record rate, introduction pathways
The number of alien species established outside their native range and the associated impacts on biodiversity and human wellbeing have explosively increased in recent centuries due to the acceleration of international trade and travel (
Japan is one of the island countries that has the largest number of naturalised alien vascular plant species (
To achieve these goals, in this study, we compiled a dataset of the first record year and introduction pathways for approximately 1,500 alien vascular plant species found in Japan and analysed the changes over time in the annual number of newly recorded species (i.e., first record rates) by pathway throughout the past 150 years. We also calculated the fraction of invasive species brought through each pathway to identify the routes that have contributed the most to the accumulation of problematic alien species with detrimental impacts on biodiversity and human wellbeing. Here, we specifically determine (1) the past and recent trends in first record rates (accelerating, decelerating or saturated) and the period with the greatest first record rates and (2) the pathways through which more invasive species have been introduced and that should be targeted in future management.
Japan is an island nation located in East Asia. Historically, the country conducted trade internationally, mainly with neighbouring Asian countries, and with a few European countries, until it was interrupted by the Edo shogunate, the first united government established in 1603 (
We generated a dataset on alien vascular plant species introduced from overseas to Japan using the following four steps. First, we created a list of alien plant species based on
Second, we gathered information on the year of first record of each listed species from four comprehensive illustrated reference books on alien or cultivated plant species in Japan:
Third, we compiled information on the introduction pathways of the listed species or descriptions of how the species was used as a surrogate for the introduction pathway. We applied a major pathway classification, i.e., intentional and unintentional. We further classified them into pathway categories defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity (
Finally, we compiled information on whether each species has been recognised by the Japanese government as harmful to biodiversity and human wellbeing by referring to two invasive alien species lists created by government agencies, one made in 2005 (“the alien species alert list”,
The compiled dataset included 46 archaeophyte species that were introduced before 1603, and we removed those species to ensure data quality. Doing so resulted in 1,707 species left for analysis, of which 1,463 species had information on the year of first record.
The dataset generated during this study is considered the largest of first records for alien vascular plant species in Japan, given that the number of alien vascular plant species tagged with Japan currently registered in the Alien Species First Records Database (
All data analyses were performed using the R statistical environment (
The temporal trends of the first record rates were modelled using generalised additive models (GAMs) in the mgcv R package. The GAMs enabled us to illustrate nonlinear trends over time. Because of the nature of first record rates as overdispersed count data, we applied a negative binomial distribution with a log link function. In addition to the overall trend without distinguishing introduction pathways, a separate model was constructed for each pathway category and subcategory having a sufficient sample size, which is here defined as more than 40 species. The theta parameters of negative binomial distributions were estimated during model fitting. If the relationship between time and the first record rates was not significant at p < 0.05 for a given pathway according to the GAM, we considered that the first record rates associated with the pathway did not change temporally. In our dataset, the first records of alien plant species before 1845 were found in only three fragmentary years (1699, 1735 and 1784), and the number of recorded species in these three years was limited to five. Likewise, first records after 2000 (110 species) were possibly underrepresented due to the delay between observation and report, as seen in the sharp decline in the number of first records in the last 20 years (Suppl. material
To determine the pathways responsible for the accumulation of invasive alien species, we tested whether the proportion of invasive species to all species introduced through each pathway differed from the overall pattern without distinguishing pathways using Fisher’s exact test with Bonferroni correction of p values in the RVAideMomoire R package. We considered pathways with a significantly higher proportion of invasive species than the overall pattern as more responsible in terms of invasive species introduction. The analysis was conducted only for pathways involving more than 40 species.
The cumulative number of first records of alien plant species in Japan has been increasing since the late 1800s due to both intentional and unintentional introductions and largely due to introduction through unknown pathways (Fig.
Cumulative number of alien plant species by introduction pathway in Japan A cumulative number of first records B, C percentage of species introduced by each pathway in the cumulative number of species introduced via intentional and unintentional introductions, respectively.
The GAM analysis detected significant temporal trends in first record rates during the period from 1845 to 2000 for overall and all the examined pathways except for release in nature (Fig.
Temporal trends in first record rates in Japan, 1845–2000 A overall trends without distinguishing pathways B–D trends for intentional, unintentional and unknown introductions, respectively. Grey dots indicate the observed numbers of first recorded species, and lines indicate the generalised additive model (GAM) estimations (for the model fitting results, see Suppl. material
The proportion of invasive species to all species varied across introduction pathways (Fig.
Proportion of invasive species by pathway with more than 40 species involved. Asterisks indicate significant differences in the proportion of invasive species compared to the overall pattern (All) without distinguishing pathways (Fisher’s exact test with Bonferroni correction of p values: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001). The numbers in brackets and size of the pie charts show the total number of species involved in the pathways. As one species may be included in multiple pathways, the number for each subcategory amounts to more than the overall number (All).
Our analysis using a newly compiled dataset yielded the following two key findings on the temporal trends and main pathways of alien plant accumulation in Japan: (1) starting in the late 1800s when the country opened its borders, the accumulation of alien plant species accelerated, but by 1960, the pace of accumulation showed signs of saturation and has been slightly decreasing since then to the present. (2) The accumulation of invasive alien species with detrimental impacts on biodiversity and human wellbeing is largely attributed to intentional introductions, including those for ornamental purposes, as well as agricultural purposes and release in nature.
Our estimation of the maximum overall first record rate in Japan, 15.7 new alien plant species per year, was 1.8 times the maximum rate of 8.8 species per year recorded in China in the early 1900s (
However, we found that the overall first record rate peaked in 1955 and slowly began to decline in 1961. This saturation and subsequent decline are possibly due to multiple social and environmental factors. For example, the reduced access to new alien species pools because of the saturation of the diversity of trade partners can lead to a slowdown of the first record rate (
As above, we found a promising tendency in which, overall, the accumulation of new alien plant species in Japan has been saturated and even slowing despite the continuing trade expansion. Nonetheless, the estimated first record rate in the recent 10-year period from 1991 to 2000 was still more than 13 species per year. Based on the proportion of invasive species to all introduced species (11%), the first record rate of 13 new species per year implies that at least one novel invasive species is included every year. We found that the first record rate via intentional introduction exceeded the rate via unintentional introduction throughout the study period. This finding is in line with previous studies highlighting the primary roles of intentional introduction in alien plant invasion (
This study demonstrated the long-term trend of alien vascular plant accumulation in Japan and the introduction pathways that have most contributed to the accumulation. We believe that the results of this study could be a basis for developing national policies and action plans to achieve Target 6 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to reduce the rates of introduction and establishment of invasive alien species by at least 50% (
We sincerely thank Akiko Tomioka and Yasuyuki Yoshimura for their invaluable help in data compilation. This work was supported by a research grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI grant [22K12468]. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Association between the first record rate and import value
Data type: text including figures and a table (PDF file)
Explanation note: Methods and results of testing the association between the first record rate and import value.
Definitions of subcategories used for escape from confinement
Data type: table (PDF file)
Explanation note: Definitions of subcategories used for escape from confinement in this study.
Generalised additive model (GAM) results
Data type: table (PDF file)
Explanation note: Generalised additive model (GAM) results of the temporal trends in the first record rates.
Temporal trends in first record rates from 1845 to 2000 by subcategory of introduction pathway
Data type: figure (PDF file)
Explanation note: Temporal trends in first record rates from 1845 to 2000 by subcategory of introduction pathway.