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Northeast Sleeper Species Database (ver. 2.0, May 2024)

Sleeper populations are established populations of introduced species whose population growth is limited by one or more abiotic or biotic conditions. Sleeper populations pose an invasion risk if a change in those limiting conditions, such as climate change, enables population growth and invasion. With thousands of established species, it is critical that we identify and prioritize potential sleepers. Here, we identified non-native plants established in the northeastern United States with high impacts and the potential to expand with climate change. We focused on 118 taxa regulated by one or more state outside the Northeast plus 61 taxa recorded as invasive globally and under consideration for regulation in the Northeast. We identified 49 plants with ecological impacts linked to loss of native diversity and 94 plants with socioeconomic impacts. 81 species showed an increase in climatic suitability for abundant populations with climate change. This approach can inform climate-smart, proactive management of sleeper populations before they become invasive.

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Author(s) Ayodele O'Uhuru, Bethany Bradley, Toni Lyn. Morelli orcid
Publication Date 2022-05-16
Beginning Date of Data 2020
Ending Date of Data 2022
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P1M33QBM
Citation O'Uhuru, A., Bradley, B., and Morelli, T.L., 2022, Northeast Sleeper Species Database (ver. 2.0, May 2024): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P1M33QBM.
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Metadata Date 2024-05-09
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Citations of these data No citations of these data are known at this time.
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License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
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Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2024-07-18T13:40:47.875Z