Using species introductions to gain insight about key biological processes

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Invasive species have the potential to do major ecological harm, and their management costs governments billions of dollars annually. Moreover, global climate change is predicted to promote the northward migration of potentially harmful invasive species; Canada is expected to be a net recipient of such species. And yet, we are currently hampered in our ability to predict the evolutionary and ecological response of native and agricultural ecosystems to species invasions because of a general lack of theoretical and empirical work in this area. Species introductions for which we have knowledge and control over the timing and location of release present a powerful system in which to test questions about the role of the species composition and interactions in a community on its evolutionary and ecological processes. Biological control programs, the goal of which is take advantage of natural enemies for invasive species management, are an appealing tool because they may be used in the place of potentially harmful chemicals. However, the introduction of a new species into an existing ecosystem is not without risks. The introduction and migration of the invasive plant species purple loosestrife and its biocontrol agent, a herbivorous beetle, in Canada and the United States, offers a compelling system in which to explore the questions surrounding the ecological and evolutionary response of native communities to species invasions. Here I outline a research program that will examine whether an adaptive framework allows us to improve our ability to make predictions about the long and short term impacts of species introductions on native plant communities. The knowledge gained will both contribute to a key area of discovery science and to the improvement of policy on invasive species management.