Sundaram, Bharath and Ramaswami, Geetha and Paul, Mridula and Hiremath, Ankila J. (2018) Synergistic Impacts of Invasive Alien Species and Climate Change: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation. In: Biodiversity and climate change: an Indian perspective. Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Government of India, pp. 213-229.
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Abstract
Climate change and invasive alien species are considered to be primary threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning globally (Vitousek et al. 1997; Steffen et al. 2015; Tilman et al. 2017). It is estimated that 25% of all mammal species, 13% of all bird species, and over 21000 species of plants face a high probability of extinction within a 50-year window (Tilman et al. 2017). In addition to climate change and invasive species, threats to biodiversity come from unsustainable resource consumption and extraction, land use and land cover change, and pollution. While each of the factors listed above are potent enough when viewed individually, additional challenges to conserving biodiversity and ecosystems come from the threats posed by the interaction among them. In this chapter, we explore and examine different facets of how climate change and alien invasive species interactively threaten biodiversity in India. We review how Indian ecosystems are likely to change with changing climate (e.g. Rasquinha and Sankaran 2016). We then describe how alien invasive species are likely to respond to various climate- and ecosystem-change scenarios (e.g. Adhikari et al. 2015; Panda et al. 2018). These responses of invasive species include the potential influence of climate change on the various aspects of the invasion pathway (Hellmann et al. 2008; Leishman and Gallagher 2015), as well as how climate change is likely to exacerbate already existing impacts of alien invasive species on human well-being. We then explicate India’s policy position on invasive species as a signatory to international agreements pertaining to the various ecological and social impacts of alien invasive species and climate change. We end by presenting a range of possible management responses towards addressing alien invasive species in a changing climate, and point out research, policy, and management gaps for further work. Our review is not meant to be a comprehensive literature review of alien invasive species research in India, and we refer largely to material pertaining to plant invasive species in terrestrial ecosystems.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Copyright of this article belongs to the authors. |
| Subjects: | A ATREE Publications > H Book Chapters |
| Divisions: | SM Sehgal Foundation Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation |
| Depositing User: | Ms Suchithra R |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Nov 2025 05:05 |
| Last Modified: | 25 Nov 2025 05:05 |
| URI: | http://archives.atree.org/id/eprint/965 |

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