Lag times and exotic species: The ecology and management of biological invasions in slow-motion1

:Time lags can be found throughout the invasion process, including in the arrival, establishment, and impacts of invaders. While we often lack the information necessary to generate quantitative expectations of invader performance, some types of lags are not surprising. For example, populations often grow exponentially in the early phases of invasion, and this will give rise to an inherent lag. More broadly, early rates of anthropogenic invasion were much slower than what we are now witnessing, but as the vectors of invasion have also increased dramatically over time, this early lag is not unexpected. Many other lags, however, appear dramatically prolonged, and can come to an end with changes to the invader or…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Commerce
• NO
  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• CS
  California Sea Grant, University of California, San Diego