A missing cog in the wheel: an Allee effects perspective in biological invasion paradigm

Environmental stochasticity and invasive species demographical factors are considered to be fundamental aspects of species invasion. Population size, density, and intraspecific competition are the important determinants of species range expansion. Allee effects, interesting density-dependent phenomena, act as ‘mechanism of population regulation’ during species expansion. The study intends to understand the trend of published researches and identify research gaps pertaining to biological invasions and Allee effects with the help of bibliometric analysis. Content and citation analysis using key words ‘Allee effects’ AND ‘biological invasion’ was conducted on research articles published over a period of two and a half decades from Scopus database for global and Indian context. Understanding of Allee effects dynamics in context of biological invasion is limited, especially in India. Integrating the emerging trends pertaining to Allee effects in the biological invasion framework will strengthen the understanding on species range expansion. It is emphasized that Allee effects can emerge as an important tool to manage invasive species range expansion.