Climate change projected to exacerbate the economic costs of biological invasions

Abstract Invasive species are causing high and increasing economic costs worldwide. However, the potential economic costs associated with range shifts of invasive species under climate change remain understudied. Here, we incorporated abundance-based species distribution modeling, management temporal dynamics, and socioeconomic factors to evaluate the effect of climate change on potential economic costs for 121 animal invaders in 67 countries. On average, the future potential economic costs associated with biological invasions in 2060 were 19.6% (SSP 126)–21.0% (SSP 585) higher than the current potential costs. On average, 87.1% of countries would experience increased future costs associated with 84.8% of animal invaders, which is driven mainly by the costliest invaders worldwide. We demonstrated that improvements in management efforts, especially preinvasion strategies, might reduce future costs by 65.4% at most. Our findings highlight the importance of proactive and early management strategies for the costliest invaders to mitigate economic losses under accelerating biological invasion and climate change.