Inland Fisheries

9.1.4 Characteristics making a region vulnerable to biological invasions

Characteristics that make a habitat or a geographic region more vulnerable to biological invasions are

• Similarity to the source area
• Presence of vacant or underutilized niches
• Low native species richness
• Anthropogenic disturbance of the ecosystem. Among human activities that make a region particularly vulnerable are extreme alterations in soil characteristics, frequent fires, grazing, nutrient inputs, hydrological shifts and habitat fragmentation.

Ecologists find it puzzling that many non indigenous species which turn out to be invasive in the introduced region are generally innocuous in their own native range.