Invasive species cost society over $2.8 trillion in damages, study shows
Farmers harvest corn in Jiayuguan, in China's Gansu province. Invasive wild hogs can cause agricultural damage to crops, cornfields and vineyards. PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS - From river-clogging plants to disease-carrying insects, the direct economic cost of invasive species worldwide has averaged about US$35 billion (S$45 billion) a year for decades, researchers said on May 26.
Since 1960, damage from non-native plants and animals expanding into new territory has cost society more than US$2.2 trillion (S$2.8 trillion), 17 times higher than previous estimates, they reported in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The accelerating spread of invasive species – from mosquitoes to wild boar to tough-to-eradicate plants – blights agriculture, spreads disease and drives the growing pace of species extinction.
Earlier calculations based on highly incomplete data were already known to fall far short of reality.
To piece together a more accurate picture, an international team of researchers led by Professor Ismael Soto, a scientist at the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic, compiled data on 162 invasive species whose costs have been well documented in at least a handful of countries.
They then modelled the economic impact for 78 other countries such as Bangladesh and Costa Rica, for which no data was previously available.
'We expected an underestimation of invasion costs, but the magnitude was striking,' Prof Soto told AFP.
Due mainly to high volumes of trade and travel, tens of thousands of animal and plant species have taken root, sometimes literally, far from their places of origin.
Europe is by far the continent most affected by the phenomenon, followed by North America and Asia.
'Plants were the most economically damaging group, both for damage and management,' Prof Soto said. 'Cost hotspots include urban coastal areas, notably in Europe, eastern China, and the US.'
Animals can cause devastating damage too.
Wild boar, for example, destroy crops, cornfields and vineyards, while mosquitoes – with expanding ranges due to global warming – impose direct costs to human health by spreading diseases such as dengue and malaria.
Another example is Japanese knotweed, an invasive plant that is very common in Europe and requires costly eradication programmes.
'Our study is based on only 162 species,' Prof Soto noted. 'Our figure is probably still an underestimate of a wider problem, and therefore the real economic costs could be even higher.'
Using a broader definition – including indirect costs such as lost income – the UN's biodiversity expert group, IPBES, has calculated the total cost to society of invasive species at about US$400 billion annually. AFP
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
10 hours ago
- Straits Times
Israeli scientists scramble to save work after Iranian missile hits labs
Professor Roee Ozeri speaks to the media surrounded by rubble at the campus of the Weizmann Institute caused by an Iranian missile strike on Sunday, in Rehovot, Israel. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura A building at the campus of the Weizmann Institute of Science remains damaged following an Iranian missile strike on Sunday, in Rehovot, Israel June 19, 2025. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura A building at the campus of the Weizmann Institute of Science remains damaged after an Iranian missile strike on Sunday, in Rehovot, Israel June 19, 2025. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura A building at the campus of the Weizmann Institute of Science remains damaged following an Iranian missile strike on Sunday, in Rehovot, Israel June 19, 2025. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura REHOVOT, Israel - Researchers at Israel's prestigious Weizmann Institute of Science have been scrambling to save their experiments after an Iranian missile destroyed a building containing dozens of cutting-edge laboratories. The missile struck the institute's campus at Rehovot, on the southern periphery of Tel Aviv, in the early hours of Sunday, damaging multiple buildings and prompting researchers to clamber into the ruins to save samples even as fire raged. No one was hurt as the campus was empty overnight, but one part of a building collapsed entirely, while in the remaining part the walls were blown out, exposing a tangle of twisted metal, blasted debris and blackened cement. "We did our best to save as much of the samples as we could from the labs, from the buildings, while we were fighting the fire," physicist Roee Ozeri, Weizmann's vice president for development and communications, told Reuters. Israel began attacking Iran last Friday, saying its longtime enemy was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes, retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Israel. Israel's strikes have killed several prominent Iranian nuclear scientists, wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command, damaged nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of civilians. Iran's attacks have killed 24 civilians in Israel and damaged hundreds of structures, including a hospital in the southern city of Beersheba. Iran has not said if or why it targeted the Weizmann Institute. While most of the institute's research is in areas with potential benefits for medicine and scientific knowledge, it also has connections with defence. It announced in October 2024 a collaboration with Israel's largest defence firm Elbit on "bio-inspired materials for defence applications". A multidisciplinary institution which carries out research in fields including genetics, immunology and astrophysics, Weizmann was founded in 1934 and is considered world-class within the international scientific community. It is Israel's most important science research institute, with 286 research groups, 191 staff scientists and hundreds of PhD students, master's students and postdoctoral fellows. 'EVERYTHING IS LOST' The Iranian missile hit the work of researchers such as Eldad Tzahor, who focuses on regenerative medicine with particular relevance to adult heart diseases. He said many samples and tissues that had been part of long-running experiments had been destroyed. "Everything is lost," he told Reuters TV. "I would estimate that it will take us about a year to get into a full year of research and with everything working again." In financial terms, the damage is estimated at $300-$500 million, according to the institute, which operates costly, complex machines, often shared between several labs or research groups. Jacob Hanna, who runs a molecular genetics team focused on embryonic stem cell biology, told the scientific journal Nature that his lab's ceiling had collapsed and the staircase had detached. His students managed to save hundreds of frozen mouse and human cell lines by transferring them to back-up liquid-nitrogen tanks that Hanna had stored in the basement, Nature reported. "I was always worried that if a war actually happens, I don't want to lose these," he said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
15 hours ago
- Straits Times
Up to 50 times more microplastics in glass bottles than plastic, study shows
A researcher inspecting pieces of microplastic collected from the River Rhone in Arles, southern France. PHOTO: AFP Up to 50 times more microplastics in glass bottles than plastic, study shows PARIS – Drinks including water, soda, beer and wine sold in glass bottles contain more microplastics than those in plastic bottles, according to a surprising study released by France's food safety agency on June 20. Researchers have detected these tiny, mostly invisible pieces of plastic throughout the world, from the air we breathe to the food we eat, as well as riddled throughout human bodies. There is still no direct evidence that this preponderance of plastic is harmful to human health, but a burgeoning field of research is aiming to measure its spread. Dr Guillaume Duflos, research director at French food safety agency Anses, said the team sought to 'investigate the quantity of microplastics in different types of drinks sold in France and examine the impact different containers can have'. The researchers found an average of around 100 microplastic particles per litre in glass bottles of soft drinks, lemonade, iced tea and beer. That was five to 50 times higher than the rate detected in plastic bottles or metal cans. 'We expected the opposite result,' PhD student Iseline Chaib, who conducted the research, said. 'We then noticed that in the glass, the particles emerging from the samples were the same shape, colour and polymer composition – so therefore the same plastic – as the paint on the outside of the caps that seal the glass bottles,' she said. The paint on the caps also had 'tiny scratches, invisible to the naked eye, probably due to friction between the caps when they were stored', Anses said in a statement. This could then 'release particles onto the surface of the caps', it added. Wine fine For water, both flat and sparkling, the amount of microplastic was relatively low in all cases, ranging from 4.5 particles per litre in glass bottles to 1.6 particles in plastic. Wine also contained few microplastics – even glass bottles with caps. Dr Duflos said the reason for this discrepancy 'remains to be explained'. Soft drinks, however, contained around 30 microplastics per litre, lemonade 40 and beer around 60. Because there is no reference level for a potentially toxic amount of microplastics, it was not possible to say whether these figures represent a health risk, Anses said. But drink manufacturers could easily reduce the amount of microplastics shed by bottle caps, it added. The agency tested a cleaning method involving blowing the caps with air, then rinsing them with water and alcohol, which reduced contamination by 60 per cent. The study released by Anses was published online in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis in May. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
19 hours ago
- Straits Times
New cast and director of latest Jurassic World sequel excited to be part of the ride
Actors Jonathan Bailey, Scarlett Johansson, Rupert Friend and Mahershala Ali attend the \"Jurassic World Rebirth\" global premiere in London, Britain, June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso New cast and director of latest Jurassic World sequel excited to be part of the ride LONDON - Scarlett Johansson's role in Jurassic World Rebirth made her recall her earliest memories of the dinosaur film franchise. The American actress recalled seeing the first Jurassic Park film in 1993 at the movie theatre when she was 10 years old. 'It imprinted on me very deeply,' the 40-year-old star said at the standalone sequel's London premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. The movie opens in Singapore cinemas on July 2. 'For the next three decades, I was like, I would have done anything to be in a Jurassic movie in any capacity,' she added. The franchise, created by American author Michael Crichton, has spawned several films, merchandising deals and video games. Jurassic World Rebirth, directed by British film-maker Gareth Edwards, follows a team of specialists that embarks on an expedition to a forbidden island, home to a research facility for the original Jurassic Park. Scarlett Johansson as skilled covert operations expert Zora Bennett in Jurassic World Rebirth, directed by Gareth Edwards. PHOTO: UIP Some of the specialists include characters played by Johansson and British actors Jonathan Bailey and Rupert Friend, who must obtain DNA samples from three dinosaurs to achieve a life-saving medical breakthrough. For Friend, 43, this instalment in the franchise is exhilarating. 'I love adventure. I love being taken on a ride where you don't know what's going to happen. I love the unknown. I love risk,' he said. For well-known science fiction director Edwards (Godzilla, 2014; Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, 2016), the pressure for Jurassic World Rebirth to succeed did not hit until he arrived at the premiere. 'It's all front and centre here. It feels a bit weird, to be honest. I can't quite get my head around it,' the 49-year-old added. REUTERS Jurassic World Rebirth opens in Singapore cinemas on July 2. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
