Invasive species issues in Canada - How can ecology help?

The field of invasive species biology has been growing rapidly in the past decade, spurred on by the US Executive Order on invasive species in 1999. Despite calls to deal with invasive alien species under the International Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992, Canada has been slow to act. Part of the difficulty in managing alien invasive species effectively lies in the lack of ecological knowledge. The Canadian strategy on invasive alien terrestrial plants developed recently by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency sees research as a critical component of the strategy, including study of the biology and ecology of invasive plants. A symposium on ecology and invasive plant species at the Plant Canada meeting in 2007 in Saskatoon served to explore some emerging research in Canada, particularly focusing on Canada's prairie region. Papers derived from five of the presentations are presented here and illustrate well the continuing challenge of applying ecological principles to the complex issues surrounding invasive plants. Canadian ecologists have made a significant contribution, but much remains to be done along the lines of the simple studies provided in this symposium.