Introduced (non-native) species that becomes established may eventually become invasive, so tracking introduced species provides a baseline for effective modeling of species trends and interactions, geospatially and temporally.
The United States Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (US-RIIS) is comprised of three lists, one each for Alaska, Hawaii, and the conterminous United States. Each list includes introduced (non-native), established (reproducing) taxa that: are, or may become, invasive (harmful) in the locality; are not known to be harmful there; and/or have been used for biological control in the locality.
To be included in the US-RIIS, a taxon must be non-native everywhere in the locality and established (reproducing) anywhere in the locality. Native pest species are not included. The US-RIIS builds on a previous dataset, A Comprehensive List of Non-Native Species Established in Three Major Regions of the U.S.: Version 3.0 (Simpson et al., 2020).
See also: You can access species occurrence data for the United States and U.S. Territories via the new pilot implementation of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF-US) data portal.
Note: GBIF-US was formerly hosted at BISON.USGS.gov. The existing BISON website was taken down on December 17, 2021, at which time users are now redirected to https://www.gbif.us.
An Open-File Report 2018-1156, 15 p., related to the predecessor of the US-RIIS: https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20181156.