I've been reading "Species Invasions: Insights into ecology, evolution, and biogeography" (2005) edited by Dov Sax, John Stachowicz, and Steven Gaines. Several of the chapters touch on this subject. In chapter 1, Bruno et al. do a meta-analysis of invasion studies to look at the prevalence of competition vs. other interactions, and find that other interactions like predation and facilitation are just as important. They say that while competition reductions in abundance or size of natives, there is little evidence for extinction. In chapter 12, Vermej discusses historical invasions from the fossil record and what we can learn from them. One of his conclusions is that while invasions do cause extinctions in islands, in the long term they're not very destructive. Anyway, I think it's good reading and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in this subject. If anyone else out there has read it and has thoughts on it, I'd be really interested in hearing them!
--Kathleen _______________________________ Kathleen S. Knight Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Dept. of Forest Resources University of Minnesota
