Analysing Economic Costs of Invasive Alien Species with the Invacost r Package

Authors

Boris Leroy, Sorbonne Université
Andrew M. Kramer, University of South FloridaFollow
Anne-Charlotte Vaissière, Université Paris-Saclay
Melina Kourantidou, University of Southern Denmark
Franck Courchamp, Université Paris-Saclay
Christophe Diagne, Université Paris-Saclay

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Keywords

biological invasions, drivers of change in biodiversity, economic costs, economic impacts, ecosystem services, invasive alien species

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13929

Abstract

1. The reported costs of invasive alien species from the global database InvaCost are heterogeneous and cover different spatio-temporal scales. A standard procedure for aggregating invasive species cost estimates is necessary to ensure the repeatability and comparativeness of studies.
2. We introduce here the invacost r package, an open-source software designed to query and analyse the InvaCost database. We illustrate this package and its framework with cost data associated with invasive alien invertebrates.
3. First, the invacost package provides updates of this dynamic database directly in the analytical environment R. Second, it helps understand the heterogeneous nature of monetary cost data for invasive species, processes to harmonize the data and the inherent biases associated with such data. Third, it readily provides complementary methods to investigate the costs of invasive species at different scales, all the while accounting for econometric statistical issues.
4. This tool will be useful for scientists working on invasive alien species, by (a) facilitating access to and use of this multi-disciplinary data resource and (b) providing a standard procedure which will facilitate reproducibility and comparability among studies, one of the major critics of this topic until now. It should facilitate further interdisciplinary works including economists and invasion ecology researchers.

Rights Information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Was this content written or created while at USF?

Yes

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Methods in Ecology and Evolution, v. 13, issue 9, p. 1930-1937

Scholar Commons Citation

Leroy, Boris; Kramer, Andrew M.; Vaissière, Anne-Charlotte; Kourantidou, Melina; Courchamp, Franck; and Diagne, Christophe, "Analysing Economic Costs of Invasive Alien Species with the Invacost r Package" (2022). Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications. 531.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/bin_facpub/531