Biological Invasions

Global trade and travel cause the transportation of organisms to regions in which they did not occur before. Oftentimes, these organisms manage to establish and spread in these new ranges. These processes are called biological invasions.

Together with Jonathan Jeschke and many colleagues, I analyzed literature to find out which major hypotheses in invasion ecology are supported by empirical evidence. The results are published in a book, and a visualized, interactive summary can be found at hi-knowledge.org/invasion-biology. See below for ongoing work on this.

In addition to mechanisms of biological invasions, I have been working on the evolutionary ecology of invasive plants. Together with Andrew Latimer and others, I have studied Erodium cicutarium, a plant native to Europe and invasive e.g. in North and South America. Very interesting to me is also the ethical question how to deal with these species.

Projects

enKORE - Towards an open, zoomable atlas for invasion science and beyond

Invasive species and other non-native species are on the rise, and their global impacts on ecosystems, economies and human health are highly problematic. Invasion science, the study of these species, is critical to mitigate their impacts, yet due to the strong increase of data and information in this area, it has become difficult to acquire and maintain an overview of the field. As a result, existing evidence is often not found, knowledge is not transferred to practice, and research is conducted in pursuit of dead ends. We propose to address these challenges by developing an interactive atlas of invasion science that can be extended to other disciplines in the future. This knowledge portal will be called enKORE, EvolviNg KnOwledge REsource. It will be open for anyone to use, including researchers, citizen scientists, practitioners and policy makers. Users will be able to zoom into the major research questions and hypotheses of invasion science, which are connected to the relevant studies published in the field and, if available, the underlying raw data. enKORE will apply cutting-edge visualization techniques, artificial intelligence and novel methods for knowledge synthesis.

Funded by Volkswagen Foundation, project start: September 2021, project proposal

Project partners: Jonathan Jeschke, Peter Kraker, Daniel Mietchen

INAS - Interactive Argumentation Support in the Invasion Biology Domain

This project is funded as part of the Robust Argumentation Machines program by the DFG. We will develop an argumentation machine that supports users in and during the argumentation process in a scientific context. The goal is to enable users to follow ongoing argumentation in a scientific community and to develop their own arguments. The project collaborates closely with other initiatives that work on mapping and organizing scientific knowledge, such as the hi-knowledge project. Our interdisciplinary team brings together people from Natural Language Processing, Biology, Semantic Web and Knowledge Representation. Check out our project website!

Funded by DFG, project start: Septemer 2021

Project partners: Sina Zarrieß, Birgitta König-Ries, Jonathan Jeschke, Alsayed Algergawy

Cooperations

• Jonathan Jeschke

• Andrew Latimer

• Uta Eser

• EU Working Group on Invasive Alien Species (personal capacity member)

Books

Jeschke, J. M. & Heger, T. (eds)(2018): Invasion Biology – Hypotheses and Evidence. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK, 177 pp. Accompanying web page: hi-knowledge.org/invasion-biology.

Heger, T. (2004): Zur Vorhersagbarkeit biologischer Invasionen. Entwicklung und Anwendung eines Modells zur Analyse der Invasion gebietsfremder Pflanzen. Schriftenreihen Neobiota Band 4, Berlin, 197 S. [link to pdf]

Essays

Heger, T. (2019): Invasive Species – Boon or Bane? Topos 108: 90-93. [link to pdf]

Heger, T. (2019): Lässt sich vorhersagen, ob eine Art invasiv wird? – Krumm, F. & Vítková, L. (eds.). Eingeführte Baumarten in europäischen Wäldern: Chancen und Herausforderungen. European Forest Institute: 80-87. [link to pdf]

Heger, T. (2018): Menschen, Pflanzen, Aversionen? Gebietsfremde Arten und neuartige Ökosysteme. Nodium – Zeitschrift des Alumni-Clubs Landschaft der TU München 10: 64-67. [link to pdf]

Heger, T. (2016): Can we predict whether a species will become invasive? – Krumm, F. & Vítková, L. (eds.). Introduced tree species in European forests: opportunities and challenges. European Forest Institute: 78-84. [link to pdf]

Other Publications

Heger, T., Jeschke, J. M., Bernard-Verdier, M., Musseau, C. L., Mietchen, D. (2024): Hypothesis Description: Enemy Release Hypothesis. Research Ideas and Outcomes, 10: e107393. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.10.e107393

* Van Looy, K., Wolter, C., Jeschke, J. M., Beisel, J.-N., Heger, T. (2024): Invasion wave patterns testify resilience in river systems. In: M. Thoms, I. Fuller (Eds.), Resilience and Riverine Landscapes, p. 230-246. Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-323-91716-2.00022-4

Mayer, K., Heger, T., Kühn, I., Tiesmeyer, A., Nehring, S., Gaertner, M. (2023): Deutschlands erster Aktionsplan: Präventive Maßnahmen gegen die unbeabsichtigte Einbringung und Ausbreitung invasiver Arten entlang prioritärer Pfade. Natur und Landschaft, 98(12): 562-568. DOI: 10.19217/NuL2023-12-03

* Bernard-Verdier, M., Heger, T., Mietchen, D., Musseau, C. L., Brinner, M., Hillig, A., Kraker, P., Lokatis, S., Nunes, A. L., Scheidweiler, N., Stocker, M., Vial, R., Vogt, L., Bacher, S., Baklouti, E., Gupta, H. B., Beisel, J.-N., Bertolino, S., Briski, E., Castellanos-Galindo, G. A., Courchamp, F., Daly, E., Dawson, W., Dickey, J., Evans, T., Itescu, Y., Koenig-Ries, B., Kumar, L., Kumschick, S., Meyerson, L. A., Pattison, Z., Pfadenhauer, W., Renault, D., Rickowski, F., Ruland, F., Schittko, C., Straka, T., Yannelli, F., Jeschke, J. M. (2023): Building an atlas of knowledge for invasion biology and beyond! 2nd enKORE-INAS Workshop. Research Ideas and Outcomes 9. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.9.e115395

* Bernard-Verdier, M., Heger, T., Jeschke, J. M., Mietchen, D., Musseau, C. (2023): Summary report of the 1st enKORE-INAS workshop. In: Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8421054

Espínola, L. A., Minte-Vera, C. V., Heger, T., Júlio, H. F. J., Ponzo, A. M., Santos, L. N. (2023): The INVASS model, a conceptual framework to depict the invasion of the top-predator fish Cichla ocellaris in a large river floodplain. Ecologia Austral 33: 439-454. DOI: 10.25260/EA.23.33.2.0.2074

* Heger, T. (2023): Seed weight of Erodium cicutarium in its native and two invaded ranges [dataset]. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7732369

Daly, E. Z., Chabrerie, O., Massol, F., Facon, B., Hess, M. C. M., Tasiemski, A., Grandjean, F., Chauvat, M., Viard, F., Forey, E., Folcher, L., Buisson, E., Boivin, T., Baltora-Rosset, S., Ulmer, R., Gibert, P., Thiébaut, G., Pantel, J. H., Heger, T., Richardson, D. M., Renault, D. (2023): A synthesis of biological invasion hypotheses associated with the introduction–naturalisation–invasion continuum. Oikos 2023: e09645. DOI: 10.1111/oik.09645

Brinner, M., Heger, T., Zarriess, S. (2022): Linking a Hypothesis Network From the Domain of Invasion Biology to a Corpus of Scientific Abstracts: The INAS Dataset. In: Proceedings of the first Workshop on Information Extraction from Scientific Publications. Association for Computational Linguistics, pp. 32-42. [link to pdf]

* Algergawy, A., Gänßinger, M., Heger, T., Jeschke, J., & König-Ries, B. (2022): The Invasion Biology Ontology (INBIO) [Data set]. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6826848

Heger, T. (2022): What are ecological mechanisms? Suggestions for a fine-grained description of causal mechanisms in invasion ecology. Biology & Philosophy 37:9. DOI: 10.1007/s10539-022-09838-1 [link to pdf]

Heger, T., Zarrieß, S., Algergawy, A., Jeschke, J.M. & König-Ries, B. (2022): INAS: Interactive Argumentation Support for the Scientific Domain of Invasion Biology. Research Ideas and Outcomes 8: e80457. DOI: 10.3897/rio.8.e80457 [link to pdf]

Heger, T., Jeschke, J. M. & Kollmann, J. (2021): Some reflections on current invasion biology, and perspectives for an exciting future. NeoBiota 68: 79-100. DOI: 10.3897/neobiota.68.68997 [link to pdf]

Jeschke, J.M., Heger, T., Kraker, P., Schramm, M., Kittel, C. & Mietchen, D. (2021). Towards an open, zoomable atlas for invasion science and beyond. NeoBiota 68: 5-18. DOI: 10.3897/neobiota.68.66685 [link to pdf]

Eilers, E. J. & Heger, T. (2019): Past competition affects offspring foliar terpenoid concentrations, seed traits, and fitness in the invasive forb Erodium cicutarium (Geraniaceae). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7. DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00392 [link to pdf]

Heger, T. (ed.)(2019): Special Issue ‘Invasive Plants’. Plants. [link]

Latimer, A. M., Jacobs, B. S., Gianoli, E., Heger, T. & Salgado-Luarte, C. (2019): Parallel functional differentiation of an invasive annual plant on two continents. AoB Plants 11: plz010. DOI: 10.1093/aobpla/plz010 [link to pdf]

Jarić, I., Heger, T., Castro Monzon, F., Jeschke, J. M. Kowarik, I., McConkey, K. R., Pyšek, P. Sagouis, A. & Essl, F. (2019): Crypticity in biological invasions. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 34: 291-302. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2018.12.008

Rabitsch, W., Heger, T., Jeschke, J. M., Saul, W.-C. & Nehring, S. (2018): Analyse und Priorisierung der Pfade nicht vorsätzlicher Einbringung und Ausbreitung invasiver gebietsfremder Arten in Deutschland gemäß Verordnung (EU) Nr. 1143/2014 - Analysis and prioritisation of pathways of unintentional introduction and spread of invasive alien species in Germany in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014. BfN-Skripten 490. Bundesamt für Naturschutz, Bonn - Bad Godesberg, 103 S. [link to pdf]

Rabitsch, W., Heger, T., Jeschke, J. M. & Saul, W.-C. (2018): Priorisierung der Pfade unabsichtlicher Einbringung und Ausbreitung invasiver gebietsfremder Arten in Deutschland. Natur und Landschaft 9/10: 416-422. DOI: 10.17433/9.2018.50153617.416-422

Yannelli, F. A., Karrer, G., Hall, R., Kollmann, J. & Heger, T. (2018): Seed density is more effective than multi-trait limiting similarity in controlling grassland resistance against plant invasions in mesocosms. Applied Vegetation Science 21: 411-418. DOI: 10.1111/avsc.12373

Heger, T., Nikles, G. & Jacobs, B. (2018): Differentiation in native as well as introduced ranges: germination reflects mean and variance in cover of surrounding vegetation. AoB Plants 10: ply009. DOI: 10.1093/aobpla/ply009 [link to pdf]

Heger, T. (2016): Light availability experienced in the field affects ability of following generations to respond to shading in an annual grassland plant. Journal of Ecology 104: 1432–1440. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12607

Heger, T., Jacobs, B. S., Latimer, A. M., Kollmann, J. & Rice, K. J. (2014): Does experience with competition matter? Effects of source competitive environment on mean and plastic trait expression in Erodium cicutarium. Perspectives in Plant Ecology Evolution and Systematics 16: 236-246. DOI: 10.1016/j.ppees.2014.06.002

Saul, W.-C., Jeschke, J. M. & Heger, T. (2013): The role of eco-evolutionary experience in invasion success. NeoBiota 17: 57-74. DOI: 10.3897/neobiota.17.5208 [link to pdf]

Heger, T., Saul, W.-C. & Trepl, L. (2013): What biological invasions 'are' is a matter of perspective. Journal for Nature Conservation 21: 93-96. DOI: 10.1016/j.jnc.2012.11.002

Jeschke, J. M., Gómez Aparicio, L., Haider, S., Heger, T., Lortie, C. J., Pyšek, P. & Strayer, D. L. (2012): Taxonomic bias and lack of cross-taxonomic studies in invasion biology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 10: 349-350. DOI: 10.1890/12.WB.016

Jeschke, J. M., Gómez Aparicio, L., Haider, S., Heger, T., Lortie, C. J., Pyšek, P. & Strayer, D. L. (2012): Support for major hypotheses in invasion biology is uneven and declining. NeoBiota 14: 1-20. DOI: 10.3897/neobiota.14.3435 [link to pdf]

Heger, T. & Trepl, L. (2003): Predicting biological invasions. Biological Invasions 5: 313–321. DOI: 10.1023/B:BINV.0000005568.44154.12