ELNAIS meets EASIN: distribution of marine alien species in Greece using EASIN mapping services and ELNAIS spatial data

Abstract

The European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN) was created with the aim to provide easy access to accurate information on alien species in Europe. EASIN allows the retrieval of spatial information from existing online data providers in order to produce integrated georeferenced distribution maps of alien species in Europe. In November 2012, a new data provider, the Hellenic Network on Aquatic Invasive Species (ELNAIS), joined EASIN; this has significantly increased the available georeferenced information on marine/estuarine alien species in Greece. Here, we use maps created by EASIN to show differences in patterns of distribution in the Greek Seas for the most abundant Phyla of marine alien species -Mollusca, Arthropoda, Chordata and Annelida. We also show that the two main pathways of introduction of marine alien species (Lessepsian migration and shipping) are related to different patterns of species spatial distribution in Greece. Overall, the tools provided by EASIN can greatly aid scientists and policy makers in obtaining high quality information on marine alien species in Greece, especially after the association with ELNAIS.

Indicator-Based Assessment of Marine Biological Diversity–Lessons from 10 Case Studies across the European Seas

“…Aliens, fish including threatened sharks, and mammals contributed to the moderate status seen for the outer Saronikos and overall Saronikos. In general, the respective assessment results, although not definitive, are in line with pertinent studies (Frantzis, 2009;Katsanevakis et al, 2013;Papaconstantinou, 2014;Vasilakopoulos et al, 2015;Zeneto et al, 2015;Simboura et al, 2016) regarding the Greek marine waters. The Saronikos Gulf result obtained in this analysis was lower than the OHI assessment of the Greek waters, which was to be expected, as the Gulf is intensely exploited.…”

Marine Alien Species at Pserimos Island (Greece): census with the help of citizen scientists

“…The term Dodekanisa or ‘Twelve Islands’, denotes an archipelago in the south-eastern Aegean Sea, comprising 15 major islands – Agathonisi, Astypalaia, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Kos, Kastellorizo, Leipsoi, Leros, Nisyros, Patmos, Rodos, Symi, Tilos, and Chalki – and 93 smaller islets (). Despite the position of Pserimos, one of the small Dodekanisa islets, in an area susceptible to marine biological invaders (Katsanevakis et al ., 2013), the area has been unexplored and as such, no alien species had been reported until September 2014 (Corsini-Foka et al ., 2015). The aim of this work was twofold: to enrich our knowledge with new data on the alien fauna and flora of Pserimos provided by citizen scientists, whose quality is controlled by the Ellenic Network on Aquatic Invasive Species (ELNAIS) taxonomists, and to review and update the diversity of IAS in the Dodekanisa complex.…”

Aquaria kept marine fish species possibly released in the Mediterranean Sea: First confirmation of intentional release in the wild

“…The review of fi sh taxa possibly introduced in the Mediterranean by aquarium trade (release in nature) is based on the Mediterranean HCMR/EEA (Hellenic Centre for Marine Research/European Environment Agency) alien species database, archived in EASIN (European Alien Species Information Network) (Katsanevakis et al 2013b(Katsanevakis et al , 2015. FishBase (Froese and Pauly 2016), as well as other websites, were screened for marine aquarium species.…”