Invasive alien plant species: Their impact on environment, ecosystem services and human health

Abstract

Ecological perturbations caused by biotic invasion have been identified as a growing threat to global sustainability. Invasive alien plants species (IAPS) are considered to be one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss and thereby altering the ecosystem services and socio-economic conditions through different mechanisms. Although the ecological impacts of IAPS are well documented, there is a dearth of studies regarding their economic quantification, livelihood considerations, biotechnological prospects (phytoremediation, bioenergy, phyto-synthesis of nanoparticles, biomedical, industrial applications etc.) and human health risk assessments of IAPS. In this context, the current panoramic review aimed to investigate the environmental, socio-ecological and health risks posed by IAPS as well as the compounded impact of IAPS with habitat fragmentation, climate and land use changes. To this end, the need of an integrated trans-disciplinary research is emphasized for the sustainable management of IAPS. The management prospects can be further strengthened through their linkage with geo-spatial technologies (remote sensing and GIS) by mapping and monitoring the IAPS spread. Further, the horizon of IAPS management is expanded to ecological indicator perspectives of IAPS, biosecurity, and risk assessment protocols with critical discussion. Moreover, positive as well as negative implications of the IAPS on environment, health, ecosystem services and socio-economy (livelihood) are listed so that a judicious policy framework could be developed for the IAPS management in order to mitigate the human health implications.

Keywords: Biodiversity; Biomedical; Climate change; Ecological indicators; Health risks; Invasion; Livelihood; Restoration; Sustainable management.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

An interrelation framework, among anthropogenic factors/global environmental changes (biotic invasions, habitat destruction/fragmentation, land-use/climate change, environmental pollution), impacting socio-economy/livelihood and human health.

Fig. 2

The basic mechanisms/hypothesis associated with different Invasive alien plant species (IAPS), corresponding to their spread in varying environment and landscapes.

Fig. 3

a. Quantification of IAPS impacts in terms of economic loss driven by environmental alterations in terms of socio-ecological/economic aspects of human well-being of different countries e,g. United states, China, Africa European Union, South East (SE) Asia. Source [(Office of Technology Assessment (1993); Duncan et al., 2004, Xu et al., 2006, McGeoc, et al., 2010, Nghiem et al., 2013; Shackleton (2017); Sileshi et al. (2019)];Fig. 3b. An IAPS Ambrosia artemisiifolia common ragweed) of (high risk in European Union (EU) with tremendous pollen production potential, causing human health hazards through allergy; the economic quantification of treatment costs are presented in relation to evaluated data from certain countries of EU; management perspectives tends bring trans-disciplinary researchers on common platform as its pollen biology, invasive potential in context of climate change, restoration aspects, public health hazards are tightly linked with each other.

Fig. 3

a. Quantification of IAPS impacts in terms of economic loss driven by environmental alterations in terms of socio-ecological/economic aspects of human well-being of different countries e,g. United states, China, Africa European Union, South East (SE) Asia. Source [(Office of Technology Assessment (1993); Duncan et al., 2004, Xu et al., 2006, McGeoc, et al., 2010, Nghiem et al., 2013; Shackleton (2017); Sileshi et al. (2019)];Fig. 3b. An IAPS Ambrosia artemisiifolia common ragweed) of (high risk in European Union (EU) with tremendous pollen production potential, causing human health hazards through allergy; the economic quantification of treatment costs are presented in relation to evaluated data from certain countries of EU; management perspectives tends bring trans-disciplinary researchers on common platform as its pollen biology, invasive potential in context of climate change, restoration aspects, public health hazards are tightly linked with each other.

Fig. 4

Chemical structure of hazardous biological/bio-toxins released by several algal IAPS, in invaded aquatic ecosystems exerting carcinogenic, teratogenic and dermatitis impacts on human health, besides negative impacts on other components of food chain.

Fig. 5

IAPS ecological indicators and methods recommended by experts for an effective risk-analysis through various risk scoring protocols for management of environmentally/agriculturally hazardous invaders with biosecurity and human health implications.

Fig. 6

Interdisciplinary interactions of IAPS, with multifaceted aspects of human well-being e.g. public health, (which is generally negative with rare positive impacts), environmental/socio-economic services, with livelihood implications (both positive and negative); An equitable evaluation of ecological economics in conjunction with associated phytotechnological implications of IAPS in nanotechnology, public health, agriculture and environment can provide an impetus to ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs).

Fig. 7

A complex interdisciplinary/interrelated cumulative framework of global climate/environmental/land-use changes, with IAPS, human health, biodiversity, forestry, agriculture, fisheries and environmental (water/air resource) degradation, emanating from diverse anthropogenic factors.