Moving from Latent to Manifest Problem: Trajectories Across Scientific and Public Salience of Invasive Alien Species

J Vaas; P P J Driessen; M Giezen; F van Laerhoven; M J Wassen

doi:10.1007/s00267-020-01404-3

Moving from Latent to Manifest Problem: Trajectories Across Scientific and Public Salience of Invasive Alien Species

J Vaas
, P P J Driessen
, M Giezen
, F van Laerhoven
, M J Wassen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Who worries first about an invasive alien species: scientists or the general public, or do both become concerned simultaneously? Taking thirteen invasive alien species in the Netherlands, this article reconstructs the development of their public and scientific salience: the attention they attracted and the knowledge about them. Salience was assessed from the number of publications from 1997 onwards in the LexisNexis newspaper database and Scopus scientific database. Three trajectories were derived for a species to move from being a latent problem with low salience toward a manifest status with high public and scientific salience. In the most common trajectory, scientific salience increased first, followed by an increase in public salience. We probed the merit of this concept of trajectories by examining the action undertaken for a representative species of the trajectories. We assigned each of these three species a code for inertia and inaction based on the content of a hundred newspaper articles and all available government documents. Knowing the scientific and public salience of these species clarifies why the actions to deal with them differed even though from an ecological perspective they warranted similar attention. The typology of public and scientific salience and the problem trajectories developed in this article together offer a structured approach for understanding an invasive alien species and provide pointers for engaging a community in managing that species.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	901-919
Number of pages	19
Journal	Environmental Management
Volume	67
Issue number	5
Early online date	2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01404-3
Publication status	Published - May 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded through the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Caribbean program. We are very grateful for the input from Wilfred Reinhold from Platform Stop Invasieve Exoten, Marcel Servaas and Bas van der Wal from Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, Johan Cronau from the Province of Gelderland, and Jeroen Ostendorf from Interprovinciaal Overleg. A particular thank you to the reviewers, whose constructive and thorough feedback greatly improved this article. The authors? editor of a near-final version of the paper was Joy Burrough. Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, 858.14.052

Funding Information:
This research was funded through the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Caribbean program. We are very grateful for the input from Wilfred Reinhold from Platform Stop Invasieve Exoten, Marcel Servaas and Bas van der Wal from Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, Johan Cronau from the Province of Gelderland, and Jeroen Ostendorf from Interprovinciaal Overleg. A particular thank you to the reviewers, whose constructive and thorough feedback greatly improved this article. The authors’ editor of a near-final version of the paper was Joy Burrough.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Keywords

Inertia
Invasive alien species
Latency
Management
Public salience
Scientific salience

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Vaas2021_Article_MovingFromLatentToManifestProbFinal published version, 1.49 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Moving from Latent to Manifest Problem: Trajectories Across Scientific and Public Salience of Invasive Alien Species",

abstract = "Who worries first about an invasive alien species: scientists or the general public, or do both become concerned simultaneously? Taking thirteen invasive alien species in the Netherlands, this article reconstructs the development of their public and scientific salience: the attention they attracted and the knowledge about them. Salience was assessed from the number of publications from 1997 onwards in the LexisNexis newspaper database and Scopus scientific database. Three trajectories were derived for a species to move from being a latent problem with low salience toward a manifest status with high public and scientific salience. In the most common trajectory, scientific salience increased first, followed by an increase in public salience. We probed the merit of this concept of trajectories by examining the action undertaken for a representative species of the trajectories. We assigned each of these three species a code for inertia and inaction based on the content of a hundred newspaper articles and all available government documents. Knowing the scientific and public salience of these species clarifies why the actions to deal with them differed even though from an ecological perspective they warranted similar attention. The typology of public and scientific salience and the problem trajectories developed in this article together offer a structured approach for understanding an invasive alien species and provide pointers for engaging a community in managing that species.",

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note = "Funding Information: This research was funded through the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Caribbean program. We are very grateful for the input from Wilfred Reinhold from Platform Stop Invasieve Exoten, Marcel Servaas and Bas van der Wal from Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, Johan Cronau from the Province of Gelderland, and Jeroen Ostendorf from Interprovinciaal Overleg. A particular thank you to the reviewers, whose constructive and thorough feedback greatly improved this article. The authors? editor of a near-final version of the paper was Joy Burrough. Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, 858.14.052 Funding Information: This research was funded through the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Caribbean program. We are very grateful for the input from Wilfred Reinhold from Platform Stop Invasieve Exoten, Marcel Servaas and Bas van der Wal from Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, Johan Cronau from the Province of Gelderland, and Jeroen Ostendorf from Interprovinciaal Overleg. A particular thank you to the reviewers, whose constructive and thorough feedback greatly improved this article. The authors{\textquoteright} editor of a near-final version of the paper was Joy Burrough. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s).",

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AU - Giezen, M

AU - van Laerhoven, F

AU - Wassen, M J

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded through the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Caribbean program. We are very grateful for the input from Wilfred Reinhold from Platform Stop Invasieve Exoten, Marcel Servaas and Bas van der Wal from Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, Johan Cronau from the Province of Gelderland, and Jeroen Ostendorf from Interprovinciaal Overleg. A particular thank you to the reviewers, whose constructive and thorough feedback greatly improved this article. The authors? editor of a near-final version of the paper was Joy Burrough. Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, 858.14.052 Funding Information: This research was funded through the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Caribbean program. We are very grateful for the input from Wilfred Reinhold from Platform Stop Invasieve Exoten, Marcel Servaas and Bas van der Wal from Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, Johan Cronau from the Province of Gelderland, and Jeroen Ostendorf from Interprovinciaal Overleg. A particular thank you to the reviewers, whose constructive and thorough feedback greatly improved this article. The authors’ editor of a near-final version of the paper was Joy Burrough. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

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N2 - Who worries first about an invasive alien species: scientists or the general public, or do both become concerned simultaneously? Taking thirteen invasive alien species in the Netherlands, this article reconstructs the development of their public and scientific salience: the attention they attracted and the knowledge about them. Salience was assessed from the number of publications from 1997 onwards in the LexisNexis newspaper database and Scopus scientific database. Three trajectories were derived for a species to move from being a latent problem with low salience toward a manifest status with high public and scientific salience. In the most common trajectory, scientific salience increased first, followed by an increase in public salience. We probed the merit of this concept of trajectories by examining the action undertaken for a representative species of the trajectories. We assigned each of these three species a code for inertia and inaction based on the content of a hundred newspaper articles and all available government documents. Knowing the scientific and public salience of these species clarifies why the actions to deal with them differed even though from an ecological perspective they warranted similar attention. The typology of public and scientific salience and the problem trajectories developed in this article together offer a structured approach for understanding an invasive alien species and provide pointers for engaging a community in managing that species.

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JO - Environmental Management

JF - Environmental Management

IS - 5

ER -

Moving from Latent to Manifest Problem: Trajectories Across Scientific and Public Salience of Invasive Alien Species

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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