ABSTRACT
In 1981, the US Environmental Protection Agency that summarized the results of an expansive search of the literature on introduced species. Although only a small fraction of introduced species causes ecological disruptions, it would not be possible to predict which ones out of a set of proposed introductions could cause problems without ecological evaluations directed at specific organisms before release. Communities and ecosystems are not saturated with "perfected" species surviving together harmoniously. Ecological niches shift continuously, and are highly context-dependent. The ability of commercial species to hybridize with wild relatives and existing weeds could provide a handy conduit by which advantageous engineered traits, such as herbicide resistance, could find their way into surrounding plant populations to create even more hardy plant pests. Ecologists and evolutionary biologists have the expertise, and should be brought into the process of developing recombinant organism products.
