Melanie Josefsson

How well do we understand the impacts of alien species on ecosystem services? A pan-European, cross-taxa assessment

Recent comprehensive data provided through the DAISIE project (www.europe-aliens.org) have facilitated the development of the first pan-European assessment of the impacts of alien plants, vertebrates, and invertebrates – in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments – on ecosystem services. There are 1094 species with documented ecological impacts and 1347 with economic impacts. The two taxonomic groups with the most species causing impacts are terrestrial invertebrates and terrestrial plants. The North Sea is the maritime region that suffers the most impacts. Across taxa and regions, ecological and economic impacts are highly correlated. Terrestrial invertebrates create greater economic impacts than ecological impacts, while the reverse is true for terrestrial plants. Alien species from all taxonomic groups affect “supporting”, “provisioning”, “regulating”, and “cultural” services and interfere with human well-being. Terrestrial vertebrates are responsible for the greatest range of impacts, and these are widely distributed across Europe. Here, we present a review of the financial costs, as the first step toward calculating an estimate of the economic consequences of alien species in Europe.

Potentials for monitoring gene level biodiversity : using Sweden as an example

Programs for monitoring biological diversity over time are needed to detect changes that can constitute threats to biological resources. The convention on biological diversity regards effective monitoring as necessary to halt the ongoing erosion of biological variation, and such programs at the ecosystem and species levels are enforced in several countries. However, at the level of genetic biodiversity, little has been accomplished, and monitoring programs need to be developed. We define “conservation genetic monitoring” to imply the systematic, temporal study of genetic variation within particular species/populations with the aim to detect changes that indicate compromise or loss of such diversity. We also (i) identify basic starting points for conservation genetic monitoring, (ii) review the availability of such information using Sweden as an example, (iii) suggest categories of species for pilot monitoring programs, and (iv) identify some scientific and logistic issues that need to be addressed in the context of conservation genetic monitoring. We suggest that such programs are particularly warranted for species subject to large scale enhancement and harvest—operations that are known to potentially alter the genetic composition and reduce the variability of populations.

Release of alien populations in Sweden

Abstract Introduction of alien species is a major threat to biological diversity. Although public attention typically focuses on the species level, guidelines from the Convention of Biological Diversity define alien species to include entities below species level. This inclusion recognizes that release of nonlocal populations of native species may also result in negative effects on biodiversity. In practice, little is known about the extent, degree of establishment, or the effects on natural gene pools of such releases. Existing information on the releases in Sweden shows that alien populations are spread to a great extent. The most commonly released species include brown trout, Atlantic salmon, Arctic char, common whitefish, Scots pine, Norway spruce, mallard duck, gray partridge, and pheasant. Although millions of forest trees, fish, and birds are released annually, poor documentation makes the geographic and genetic origin of these populations, as well as the sites where they have been released, largely unclear. We provide recommendations for urgently needed first steps relating to the risks and problems associated with release of alien populations.

One Hundred of the Most Invasive Alien Species in Europe

One of the primary tools for raising awareness on biological invasions has been the publication of species accounts of the most prominent alien invaders. Until now such compilations have been available only for particular taxa, biomes and/or regions (Cronk and Fuller 2001; Weber 2003; Weidema 2000). In Europe, species accounts for selected invasive species have been published for a few countries or regions: the Czech Republic (Mlikovský and Stýblo 2006), France (Pascal et al. 2006), Italy (Andreotti et al. 2001; Scalera 2001), Spain (Capdevila-Arguelles and Zilletti 2006); the Mediterranean Sea (CIESM 2007), and the North European and Baltic region (Gollasch et al. 1999; NOBANIS 2007). These accounts highlight invasive alien species which cause significant harm to biological diversity, socioeconomic values and human health in these regions. The main purpose of these accounts is to provide guidance to environmental managers and raise public awareness of the biological, ecological and socio-economic impacts of the most harmful invaders, together with a description of the main management options to prevent their spread and reduce their impacts. The importance of the role of such tools has been clearly shown by the IUCN’s 100 of the World’s Worst Invasive Species list (Love et al. 2000) which has been very influential in raising awareness and supporting the development of policy conservation instruments relevant to biological invasions (Shine et al. 2000). The European Environmental Agency has produced, within the SEBI 2010 project, a list of the worst invasive alien species threatening biological diversity in Europe (EEA 2007). This list contributes to the general indicator of changes in biological diversity caused by invasive alien species. The SEBI 2010 list is primarily a means to communicate the issue of invasive species to policymakers, stakeholders and the general public. The selection of the 168 species on the list was carried out in an open consultative process with an expert group, the scientific community and national environmental authorities. The main criterion used for selection was that the species have a serious impact on biological diversity at the regional level. Serious impact implies that the species has severe effects on ecosystem structure and function, it can replace native species throughout a significant proportion of its range, it can hybridise with native species or threaten biodiversity. In addition, the species can have negative consequences for human activities, health and/or economic interests.

Geo–ecology and management of sensitive montane landscapes

Montane (alpine) areas are generally of high value for nature conservation. Such environments and the habitats they support are dynamic and often fragile. They are vulnerable to disturbance from a range of human activities and are responsive to climate changes over short and long timescales. Biodiversity and conservation values are closely linked to geological history, geomorphological processes and soils, and it is crucial that management systems are based on understanding these links. There are many similarities between the Cairngorm Mountains (Scotland), the Giant Mountains (Czech Republic) and Abisko Mountains (Sweden) in terms of geology, geomorphology, ecology, links with biodiversity and high conservation importance. Comparable pressures and management issues involve, to varying degrees, a history of human use and impacts from deforestation, pasturing, grazing, recreation and atmospheric pollution. Landscape change therefore involves a complex interplay between natural and anthropogenic factors. Managing such change requires better understanding of the geo–ecological processes involved and the factors that determine landscape sensitivity. This is illustrated through a simple framework and examples from the three areas. Comparison of landscape sensitivity between similar montane areas, but in different geographic locations and climatic environments, should allow more informed management planning and a precautionary approach in advance of further changes in human activity and from predicted global warming scenarios.

Ground temperature variations in a subarctic mountain valley, Abisko, northern Sweden

Studies of the ground temperatures and hydrological conditions at four sites on a subalpine heath and in the birch forest in the subarctic valley in Abisko from 1984-87 show that a clear relationship exists between ground temperature and climatic parameters, especially precipitation through the effects of snow cover. The effects of precipitation poor summers in 1985-87 and the colder than normal and snow poor winters of 1985 and 1987 were instrumental in intensifying the effects of seasonal frost at all of the sites.

Developing a framework of minimum standards for the risk assessment of alien species

1. Biological invasions are a threat to biodiversity, society and the economy. There is an urgent need to provide evidence-based assessments of the risks posed by inva-sive alien species (IAS) to prioritize action. Risk assessments underpin IAS policies in many ways: informing legislation; providing justification of restrictions in trade or consumer activities; prioritizing surveillance and rapid response. There are benefits to ensuring consistency in content of IAS risk assessments globally, and this can be achieved by providing a framework of minimum standards as a checklist for quality assurance. 2. From a review of existing risk assessment protocols, and with reference to the r equirements of the EU Regulation on IAS (1143/2014) and international agreements including the World Trade Organisation, Convention on Biological Diversity and International Plant Protection Convention, coupled with consensus methods, we identified and agreed upon 14 minimum standards (attributes) a risk-assessment scheme should include. 3. The agreed minimum standards were as follows: (1) basic species description; (2) likelihood of invasion; (3) distribution, spread and impacts; (4) assessment of intro-duction pathways; (5) assessment of impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems; (6) Assessment of impact on ecosystem services; (7) assessment of socio-economic impacts; (8) consideration of status (threatened or protected) of species or habitat under threat; (9) assessment of effects of future climate change; (10) completion possible even when there is a lack of information; (11) documents information sources; (12) provides a summary in a consistent and interpretable form; (13) includes uncertainty; (14) includes quality assurance. In deriving these minimum standards, gaps in knowledge required for completing risk assessments and the scope of exist-ing risk assessment protocols were revealed, most notably in relation to assessing benefits, socio-economic impacts and impacts on ecosystem services but also inclu-sion of consideration of climate change. 4. Policy implications. We provide a checklist of components that should be within in-vasive alien species risk assessments and recommendations to develop risk assess-ments to meet these proposed minimum standards. Although inspired by implementation of the European Union Regulation on invasive alien species, and as such developed specifically within a European context, the derived framework and minimum standards could be applied globally.

Seven recommendations to make your invasive alien species data more useful

Science-based strategies to tackle biological invasions depend on recent, accurate, well-documented, standardised and openly accessible information on alien species. Currently and historically, biodiversity data are scattered in numerous disconnected data silos that lack interoperability. The situation is no different for alien species data, and this obstructs efficient retrieval, combination, and use of these kinds of information for research and policy-making. Standardization and interoperability are particularly important as many alien species related research and policy activities require pooling data. We describe seven ways that data on alien species can be made more accessible and useful: 1) Create data management plans; 2) Increase interoperability of information sources; 3) Document data through metadata; 4) Format data using existing standards; 5) Adopt controlled vocabularies; 6) Increase data availability; and 7) Ensure long-term data preservation. We identify four properties specific and integral to alien species data (species status, introduction pathway, degree of establishment, and impact mechanism) that are either missing from existing data standards or lack a recommended controlled vocabulary. Improved access to accurate, real-time and historical data will repay the long-term investment in data management infrastructure, by providing more accurate, timely and realistic analyses. If we improve core biodiversity data standards by developing their relevance to alien species, it will allow the automation of common activities regarding data processing in support of environmental policy. Furthermore, we call for considerable effort to maintain, update, standardise, archive, and aggregate datasets, to ensure proper valorisation of alien species data and information before they become obsolete or lost.