Notice of RetractionThe Potential Geographic Distribution of the Invasive Weed Eupatorium adenophorum Spreng in China

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

The presenting author of this paper has the option to appeal this decision by contacting TPII@ieee.org.

Eupatorium adenophorum is a multi-stemmed erect perennial that has become highly invasive in more than 30 countries around the world, including China where it has been declared a weed of national significance. Currently, the presence of E. adenophorum is limited to the Chongqing, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Tibet, Guangxi and Taiwan Provinces. Predicting the future distribution of this weed under current climate scenarios will enable policy makers and land managers to prepare appropriate control strategies, and to estimate the ecological consequence such as drastic decrease or loss of biodiversity. In the present study, CLIMEX was used to model the extent and geographical distribution of the possible future invasion of E. adenophorum so as to gain insights into the climatic factors affecting its range of expansion. Using the mean value of the meteorological parameters from 1950-2009 of 758 locations, we tested the predictability of E. adenophorum distribution by CLIMEX model. Our results indicate that many areas, such as Central Region, Southeastern Coastlands, Hainan Island, Hongkong and Macao are under threat of imminent break out of E. adenophorum. These results indicate that the potential distribution of E. adenophorum in China promoted by current climatic conditions is vast, and far greater than its current distribution. These results can assist in developing and implementing early detection measures to minimize the ecological impacts of E. adenophorum invasion in China.