Is time an ally of the invader? Time-binding the future of invasive alien species

Invasive alien species, when perceived as an environmental problem, are a typical example of a problem that necessitates action before the full effects can be seen. This temporal gap has led to an increased focus on the future and to reliance on practices that aim to make the future actionable, such as risk assessments. However, the discourse on invasive alien species also depends heavily on specific spatiotemporal understandings, established within the scientific field of invasion biology. This article develops two analytical concepts for exploring the spatiotemporal relations in invasion biology and their role in risk assessments of invasive alien species: ‘The chronotope of evolution’ informs the understanding and valuation of species on basis of co-evolution as a normative idea, while the concept ‘time-binding practices’ describes practices through which the future is addressed and made available in risk assessments of invasive alien species. A close reading of four Norwegian guidelines for risk assessment of invasive alien species produced in the period from 2007 to 2023, shows a shift from a qualitative to a quantitative assessment methodology and from assessing species on the basis of observed effects to assessing them on the basis of observed and expected effects. These shifts are accompanied by a number of different time-binding practices, such as mathematical calculation of future ecological impact, an increased timeframe of the assessment, a clear methodology for selecting species that may become invasive aliens, and a recommendation to use climate predictions from a high-emission scenario. Being informed by the chronotope of evolution, which does not include human actions and their consequences as part of evolution, the risk assessments play an important part in increasing the killability of individuals of invasive alien species, making time an ally, not of the invader, but of the humans assessing it.