Identifying Invasive Species

An area, forestry, where we did much predictive analysis as to yield and harvest.  Invasive species have increased in their danger.  Both in forestry and horticulturally.  See a number of previous posts regard Forestry analytics applications, tag below.

Can We Identify Invasive Species Before They Invade?
Scientific American
Zach St. George
December 5, 2019

Researchers at the University of Georgia, Dartmouth College, and Western Carolina University have developed models for predicting patterns of damage by invasive insects that attack North American trees. The researchers focused on 58 non-native insects that feed on one or more of 49 species of North American conifers. The researchers compiled a database of the trees' ecological traits, and the native and non-native insects that consume them; they found a crucial relationship between the trees most damaged by non-native insects and those the insects fed on in their native ecosystem. Another model found shade-tolerant and drought-intolerant trees were most susceptible to non-native insect damage, while a third model showed that conifers possessing defenses against native insects were more likely to tolerate invasions of closely related non-native insects. In combination, the researchers said, these models can retroactively forecast which non-native species will become damaging, with more than 90% accuracy, so they are confident the model can predict potential damage by future insect invaders. ... "