Why say “Introduced Nuisance Species?”
The fear of immigration is never isolated to humans… It includes nonhuman migrants in the form of unwanted germs, insects, plants, and animals.”
Banu Subramaniam in The Ethics and Rhetoric of Invasion Ecology
Language and the way we describe things is always impactful, and in science and ecology especially, using specific vocabulary is very important in describing the natural world. It is not only important to make our language as specific and clear as possible, but also to make sure our language is inclusive and doesn’t promote harmful stereotypes or histories.
Most relevant to this project, terms like “invasive,” “alien,” or “exotic” species have very xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and militaristic origins and connotations. Thus, we try to replace such terms with terms like “introduced nuisance species,” “adventive species,” or “non-endemic species.”
Here are more terms to keep in mind:
| Use This! | Not this: |
| Introduced nuisance species | Invasive/Alien/Exotic/non-native species – xenophobic nativist origin |
| Participant science or community science | Citizen Science – exclusive to non-citizens |
| Sex/Male/Female | Man/Woman – Gender is a social construct, don’t use it when describing biological sex |
| Established/Early Successional Species | Colonization/Colonizer – normalizes terms of human violence, racism, and genocide as a natural phenomenon |
| Identified/Described | Discover/Discovery – erases longstanding indigenous knowledge of environments and ecosystems prior to colonialism and Western science |
Learn more:
- “Invasive species” has a harmful nativist bias (Vox Article)
- Learn more about inclusive language with the EEB Language Project, a community initiative which compiles resources for inclusive ecology and evolutionary biology language.
- Championing inclusive terminology in ecology and evolution (Paper)