Predicting the rate of spread of introduced animals and plants

This paper includes an estimate of what needs to be known for predicting the spreading rates of introduced animal and plant species. Existing models, although capturing the principal aspects of the spreading process, still prove to be too simple. Even in their initial state of development, they require an amount of biological and environmental information that cannot be reasonably supplied. However, as such, they can indicate the kind of information needed to make statistical prediction reliable. These models also indicate the limits of prediction beyond which extrapolations from simpler models should not be made.