Group A: Impacts on Organisms, Communities and Landscapes Q5: How This Topic can Potentially Connect With Other Topics in Chapter Outline Chapter 3: Impacts of Invasive Species on Ecosystem Processes and Structures It focuses on the impacts of an invading species or species complex on the biological and physical components of a forest ecosystem, whereas Ch. 3 focuses on the impacts of the same on the processes of that forest ecosystem. Understanding the impacts on the components is linked to an understanding of the impacts on the process. Chapter 4: Climate Change and Invasive Species & Chapter 5: Influence of Natural Disturbances on Invasive Species The presence and degree of impact is modulated by the external stressors on the ecosystem. Chapter 6: Management and Prevention & Chapter 7: Risk Assessment Impacts can be divided into: 1)impacts of the invader itself on ecosystem components 2)impacts of the management actions directed at the invader on the ecosystem components. The decision to manage is often predicated on the level/severity of impact or perceived impact.

Group A: Impacts on Organisms, Communities and Landscapes Q5: How This Topic can Potentially Connect With Other Topics in Chapter Outline Chapter 9: Changing the Culture of Invasive Species Science and Management The sociological and cultural attributes of invasive species pathways; the impact of the invaders on ecosystem services of humans (e.g., water, shade, recreation); and the generally direct relationship of degree of impact on human concern leading to funding and policy implementation. Chapter 11: Economic Consequences of Invasive Species Valuation can be a key metric of impact, particularly impacts at secondary levels of ecosystem components. Chapter 8: Tools and Technologies & Chapter 10: International Perspectives Linked to Ch. 2 through the questions on “Scientific Data, Models and Syntheses” and “Critical Management and Policy Issues,” respectively.

Group A: Impacts on Organisms, Communities and Landscapes Q1: Critical Scientific Issues Cryptic or delayed impacts of invasive species: These organisms may have unexpected impacts in space and over time. Need to quantify. Invasional Meltdown: Combinatorial or potential synergistic effects of multiple invaders on multiple hosts have unquantified impacts on ecosystem components. Ecosystem resilience/resistance to IS needs to be evaluated experimentally in FACE- type simulated ecosystems to determine how systems/system components behave in general to invasions. Scaling-spatial and temporal: We need to learn how to scale up impacts from the experimental level to the landscape level and scale down the risk from the continental level to the local level. When (how frequently) do natural regulatory factors engage to control an IS.

Group A: Impacts on Organisms, Communities and Landscapes Q6: What are the Gaps in Knowledge and Current Research Cascading impacts of IS (insects on vertebrates through plants) Improving, re-targeting monitoring of presence and impact Mechanisms: How do IS (insects/pathogens) kill trees? How do IS disperse? How do impacts happen? How do we elucidate and quantify networks of impact? Do we overestimate impacts? Can we do more multivariate experiments involving environmental gradients to test ecosystem responses (linkage to climate change)? We need a datahub for IS (the IS GenBank). Do we know enough about elevational (vertical) spread of IS.

Group A: Impacts on Organisms, Communities and Landscapes Q3: Scientific Data, Models Available to Inform This Topic FIA data Climate predictive models Risk mapping/assessment Citizen Science sets NCEAS syntheses IUFRO synthesis Gary Lovett paper on ecological and economic impacts USGS Powell Center USDA plant database USDA NCGR USGS Fish database NEON data on climate change and invasives NPS long term data on vegetation Long term ecological research sites LANDIS-2 Landscape simulations models Geovisualization MODIS Decision support tools e.g. Expert system software PIERS database Documents trade manifests Sea-web database to track transports

Group A: Impacts on Organisms, Communities and Landscapes Q4: Issues Likely to Become Important by 2040 Security and IS: National security, especially food and water security Demise of biological expertise: Will we have enough taxonomists, entomologists, pathologists, plant scientists, geneticists in 2040 and beyond? IS Pathways of the future: Will we shut them down or will more and leakier pathways from understudied source populations of IS open? Consensus was strongly negative. The Godzilla Effect: Hybridization of invaders with native species. What will be the trajectories of novel ecosystems and who will decide the composition and restoration goals for the “designer” ecosystems? What will the human population density and climate look like in 25 years? The necessity of a continual investment in new detection techniques and controls for IS.

Group A: Impacts on Organisms, Communities and Landscapes Q2: Critical Management and Policy Issues Grassroots (Community) level development and delivery of lists of IS impacts to Congress Can we develop politically meaningful metrics for IS impact (the “Carbon tax” for invasive species). IS Impacts as a justification for executing ecosystem management and recovery. Develop a procedure to resolve when IS management is at odds with T&E management. Looking across the border: What are the challenges and opportunities of international management and policy issues? Human emotions: As impacts increase in magnitude the human response is to get on the hot line and call politicians’ offices. Location, location, location: proximity of impacts and human responses.