Collaborating across mountains: contributions of the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) to ecology and conservation

Abstract

Ecological research is undergoing rapid change, driven both by the urgency of the environmental crisis and by the expanded opportunities for collaboration and networking in an increasingly interconnected world. Global collaborative efforts in ecology are needed to address large scale questions and draw strong inferences, but there is no simple recipe for success in scientific ecological networking. This perspective celebrates 20 years of the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN), highlighting its key achievements in advancing the study of plant invasions and plant redistributions in mountain ecosystems and how these results may inform today’s most pressing ecological and conservation issues. As a decentralized global monitoring network built around regional nodes, MIREN has been able to generate replicated evidence across environmental gradients and biogeographical contexts. By surveying non-native plants in mountain regions around the world, the network has produced a uniquely comparable and robust dataset that allows fundamental ecological ideas to be tested with greater consistency and generality and contributes to conservation actions from local to global scales. Maintaining MIREN over the long term requires encouraging a new generation of researchers and conservation practitioners who can build on the network’s legacy while also addressing gaps in resourcing, technical capacity, and regional coverage.