Invasion ecology fifty years after Elton's book

Abstract

Charles Elton was a founder of ecology with fundamental contributions to diverse topics such as fluctuations of animal populations, food web theory, or what is now known as the Eltonian definition of the ecological niche (Macfadyen 1992; Simberloff 2000; Hardy 2002). His 1927 book Animal Ecology was reprinted many times and he was the first editor of the Journal of Animal Ecology. One of Elton’s most influential contributions, however, was his book The ecology of invasions by animals and plants, first published in 1958. Although many earlier authors including Darwin had dealt with invasive species, this book has been considered the starting point for focused scientific attention on biological invasions and is the most cited reference in the field (Pysek et al. 2006; Richardson and Pysek 2007; Ricciardi and MacIsaac 2008; Richardson and Pysˇek 2008)