Abstract:

Biological invasions is one of the three most pressing environmental problems.The invasion of alien animal has caused biodiversity loss,ecological environmental damage and economic losses of China. But to our knowledge,factors influencing regional spatial patterns of these alien animals have not been studied in China,although China is a country heavily infested with these species.Thus,it is very important to clarify the pattern of spatial distribution and the influencing factors of invasive alien animals for further prediction and management. In order to explore the relationship between spatial patterns of invasive alien animals and environmental and anthropological factors,multiple stepwise regression and canonical correspondence analysis were used to determine the effects of environmental variables(including annual precipitation,mean temperature in January,mean temperature in July,annual mean temperature,area of province,latitude,longitude and percentage of forest cover) and anthropological factors(including total population,population density,values of annual gross production,GDP on unit area,GDP per capita,values of imported goods,number of foreign tourists and total of transport) on the number,density and spatial distribution of invasive alien animals of China.Results showed that there were 136 alien invasive animals recorded in China,among which insect was accounted for 566%.The invasive animals of China were mainly in the unintentional ways,accounting for 536% of the total invasive animal number.The results indicated that the number of invasive alien animals decreased from the southeast to the northwest,which was largely determined by latitude.Also,the density of invasive alien animals decreased from the southeast to the northwest,which was largely determined by the population density.Our study suggested that latitude and the population density were the main factors that significantly affected the spatial pattern of invasion alien animal at regional and local scale,respectively,in China.These findings may have important implications for the management of invasive animals.