Niche Shifts Induce Major Changes in the Ranges of the World's Worst Invasive Ant Species

Invasive ants have exerted major effects on global ecosystems and economic systems. Therefore, their future niche and range shifts have received more research attention; however, the shifts between their native and introduced populations have not been widely investigated. Here, we examined niche and range shifts between native and introduced populations of 18 IUCN-recognized invasive ant species based on 133,786 global occurrence records. Most introduced populations have undergone substantial niche and range expansions compared to their native counterparts. Tapinoma melanocephalum, Paratrechina longicornis, Lasius neglectus, and Acromyrmex octospinosus had the largest introduced potential ranges, expanding ranges, and centroid shifts in their niches and ranges, respectively, suggesting that their invasion risk is high and thus that they require increased attention. Introduced range overlap was greatest in the southeastern USA and Europe, and the largest areas of the expanding range were observed in the southeastern USA, Mexico, and Brazil, indicating that these are the priority regions for combatting their impacts. Additionally, we detected strong positive associations between their niche and range shifts, and small niche shifts induced large range shifts.