Europe's Immigration Problem

doi:10.1126/science.309.5734.554d

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Science 22 July 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5734, p. 554
DOI: 10.1126/science.309.5734.554d

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Boring tunnel is a gold mine for ecologists. Europe is being colonized by non-native plant species that are using the highway system to get around, according to researchers from Technical University Berlin, who have done the first systematic study showing the extent of the phenomenon.
A team led by ecologist Moritz von der Lippe set up collection traps for seeds in highway tunnels leading into and out of the city. They found a surprising diversity of seeds, including non-European species such as Australian goosefoot, which presumably arrived with imported sheep wool, and South American gooseberry, probably coming from berries crushed on the tires or beds of trucks. Their study, announced in a 14 July press release, is currently under review for publication.
"This is one more example of how human transportation is homogenizing the distribution of species across the landscape," says Bernd Blossey, director of the program on invasive plants at Cornell University. Although some invasion-wary countries such as New Zealand require the tires of imported used cars to be cleaned on arrival, Europe has no such laws. Von der Lippe notes that one concern the survey raises is that the American locust trees planted along German highways may be sending their seeds out far and wide, displacing native species.
CREDIT: M. VON DER LIPPE/TU BERLIN