A Unified Classification of Alien Species Based on the Magnitude of their Environmental Impacts

Blackburn, Tim M.; Essl, Franz; Evans, Thomas; Hulme, Philip E.; Jeschke, Jonathan M.; Kühn, Ingolf; Kumschick, Sabrina; Marková, Zuzana; Mrugała, Agata; Nentwig, Wolfgang; Pergl, Jan; Pyšek, Petr; Rabitsch, Wolfgang; Ricciardi, Anthony; Richardson, David M.; Sendek, Agnieszka; Vilà, Montserrat; Wilson, John R.; Winter, Marten; Genovesi, Piero; Bacher, Sven

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001850

Cited by 703 publications

(713 citation statements)

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“…Invasiveness, or the propensity of invasive alien species (hereafter IAS) to invade, can be identified from comparative metrics between invasive and non-invasive alien species, such as those related to translocation bias, propagule pressure, and foraging/reproduction/dispersal traits (Pyšek and Richardson 2007). Invasiveness is further related to the potential impacts of IAS on the function and service of recipient ecosystems and thus dictates the prioritisation, prevention and control strategies in response to biological invasions (Blackburn et al 2014). Of particular importance are the suite of traits of IAS that differ from those of native species and noninvasive alien species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining invasiveness and invasibility in ecological networks

et al. 2016

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The success of a biological invasion is context dependent, and yet two key concepts-the invasiveness of species and the invasibility of recipient ecosystems-are often defined and considered separately. We propose a framework that can elucidate the complex relationship between invasibility and invasiveness. It is based on trait-mediated interactions between species and depicts the response of an ecological network to the intrusion of an alien species, drawing on the concept of community saturation. Here, invasiveness of an introduced species with a particular trait is measured by its per capita population growth rate when the initial propagule pressure of the introduced species is very low. The invasibility of the recipient habitat or ecosystem is dependent on the structure of the resident ecological network and is defined as the total width of an opportunity niche in the trait space susceptible to invasion. Invasibility is thus a measure of network instability. We also correlate invasibility with the asymptotic stability of resident ecological network, measured by the leading eigenvalue of the interaction matrix that depicts traitbased interaction intensity multiplied by encounter rate (a pairwise product of propagule pressure of all members in a community). We further examine the relationship between invasibility and network architecture, including network connectance, nestedness and modularity. We exemplify this framework with a trait-based assembly model under perturbations in ways to emulate fluctuating resources and random trait composition in ecological networks. The maximum invasiveness of a potential invader (greatest Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining invasiveness and invasibility in ecological networks

et al. 2016

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“…VL very low, L low, M medium, H high, VH very high Norwegian black list (Gederaas et al 2007) and impact assessment system (Sandvik et al 2013), and the ISEIA protocol (Branquart 2007). However, the recent classification of Blackburn et al (2014), and the system it is based on (Nentwig et al 2010), should probably be added to that. Yet, none of these listed encompass the four basic invasion stages, incorporate uncertainty and consider socio-economic impacts in addition to biodiversity impacts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harmonia + and Pandora +: risk screening tools for potentially invasive plants, animals and their pathogens

et al. 2015

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Given the large number of alien species that may potentially develop into invasives, there is a clear need for robust schemes that allow to screen species for such risks. The Harmonia ? framework presented here brings together 30 questions that refer to distinct components of invasion. Together, they cover the stages of introduction, establishment, spread, and multiple kinds of impacts, viz. referring to the health of the environment (including wild species), cultivated plants, domesticated animals and man. In a complete assessment, input is provided by choosing among predefined ordinal answers and by supplementing these with textual clarification. Uncertainty is covered by indicating levels of confidence. By converting answers into scores, which are then condensed into summary statistics, Harmonia ? allows for quantitative output on stage-specific and general risks. Test assessments on five species emerging in Belgium showed the perceived environmental risks of Procambarus clarkii to be highest (0.72), and that of Threskiornis aethiopicus to be lowest (0.13). Given the considerable parallels that exist between invasive alien species and emerging infectious diseases, we additionally created Pandora, which is a risk analysis scheme for pathogens and parasites. It consists of 13 key questions and has the same structure as Harmonia ? . Since diseases play a paramount role in biological invasions, results of Pandora assessments may feed into Harmonia ? through a slightly adapted, hostspecific version named Pandora ? . Harmonia ? , Pandora and Pandora ? may be used both for prioritization purposes and for underpinning detailed risk analyses, and can be consulted online through http://ias. biodiversity.be.

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“…Another way to present the overall impact of a species is to use the maximum impact score in any of the 12 categories (or separately for environmental and socioeconomic impact) similar to the method proposed by Blackburn et al (2014). The authors of this study suggested classifying species into categories ranging from minor (similar to GISS impact level of 0-1) to massive (similar to impact level 5 of GISS), rather than summing up all scores over the categories.…”

Section: Impact Levels and Scoresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are multiple possibilities to define confidence and its quantification (Leung et al 2012). For the GISS, we Sandvik et al (2013) suggest the approach given by Blackburn et al (2014) who restrict uncertainty to data quality. Comparably, the GISS does not charge the outcome of the confidence statement against the impact scores.…”

Section: Procedures (Modus Operandi)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such a tool can support the rational use of resources regarding management actions. However, the diversity of metrics for variables of impacts usually considered makes it impossible to directly compare impacts across taxa (Vilà et al 2010; but see Blackburn et al 2014;Kumschick et al 2015b). Therefore, various impact scoring systems have been developed to integrate the variability of the empirical evidence on impacts in a comparable way (e.g., Leung et al 2012 and references mentioned therein).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The generic impact scoring system (GISS): a standardized tool to quantify the impacts of alien species

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Pyšek

et al. 2016

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Alien species can exert negative environmental and socio-economic impacts. Therefore, administrations from different sectors are trying to prevent further introductions, stop the spread of established species, and apply or develop programs to mitigate their impact, to contain the most harmful species, or to eradicate them if possible. Often it is not clear which of the numerous alien species are most important in terms of damage, and therefore, impact scoring systems have been developed to allow a comparison and thus prioritization of species. Here, we present the generic impact scoring system (GISS), which relies on published evidence of environmental and socio-economic impact of alien species. We developed a system of 12 impact categories, for environmental and socio-economic impact, comprising all kinds of impacts that an alien species may exert. In each category, the intensity of impact is quantified by a sixlevel scale ranging from 0 (no impact detectable) to 5 (the highest impact possible). Such an approach, where impacts are grouped based on mechanisms for environmental impacts and receiving sectors for socio-economy, allows for cross-taxa comparisons and prioritization of the most damaging species. The GISS is simple and transparent, can be conducted with limited funds, and can be applied to a large number of alien species across taxa and environments. Meanwhile, the system was applied to 349 alien animal and plant species. In a comparison with 22 other impact assessment methods, the combination of environmental and socio-economic impact, as well as the possibility of weighting and

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A Unified Classification of Alien Species Based on the Magnitude of their Environmental Impacts

Abstract: We present a method for categorising and comparing alien or invasive species in terms of how damaging they are to the environment, that can be applied across all taxa, scales, and impact metrics.

Cited by 703 publications

References 56 publications

Defining invasiveness and invasibility in ecological networks

Defining invasiveness and invasibility in ecological networks

Harmonia + and Pandora +: risk screening tools for potentially invasive plants, animals and their pathogens

The generic impact scoring system (GISS): a standardized tool to quantify the impacts of alien species

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