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Each year, the United States incurs direct loses of approximately $120 billion due to non-indigenous invasive species, an annual cost greater then most natural disasters combined. Increasingly, invasive species are coming into the U.S. and spreading with globalization. An invasive species is defined as a non-native plant, animal, or microbe whose introduction causes, or is likely to cause, harm to the economy, the environment, or human health.

Previous attempts to monitor and track invasive species through field monitoring have proven too slow, costly and inefficient due, in part, to these species’ rates of spread and cost of the required manpower. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has partnered with NASA to use NASA Earth observations and systems engineering to enhance USGS capabilities for generating predictive models and maps of invasive species habitat and distribution. This enhanced capability within USGS, called the Invasive Species Forecasting System (ISFS), is slated to be operational in 2008. The ISFS is a computational framework that incorporates satellite data, geo-statistical models, and ecological field data to produce predictive maps that assist resource managers with invasive species management and habitat conservation.

Scientists at Goddard Space Flight Center and the USGS Fort Collins Science Center, through the Center’s National Institute of Invasive Species Science in Fort Collins, CO, have been working on the ISFS project for three years. With funding from the Earth-Sun System Technology Office’s Computational Technologies Project and led by John Schnase, Lead of CISTO’s Information Science & Technology Research area, and Tom Stohlgren (USGS), the research team has significantly enhanced tools that help locate invasive species and predict their distribution. Before the ISFS, computing regional-scale models would take days, and national-scale maps were not even attempted. Now, national-scale maps can be generated in minutes, a fraction of the time that smaller regional maps originally took to process. Further research is being done to expand the system’s capability to predict plant spread in the near-term and longer-term, and extend the project’s focus to include animals and pathogens.

Both NASA and USGS are members of the National Invasive Species Council (NISC). NISC is an interdepartmental council with 13 cabinet-level member organizations formed by Executive Order in 1999 to facilitate coordination and provide leadership for federal agencies working on invasive species issues.

Image above: Tamarisk – or “saltcedar” – is an invasive shrub that was introduced into the U.S. over a century ago from the Mediterranean. It can often out-compete native plants for water and even dry up a water source (Image credit: USGS).