A horizon scan exercise for aquatic invasive alien species in Iberian inland waters

As the number of introduced species keeps increasing unabatedly, identifying and prioritising current and potential Invasive Alien Species (IAS) has become essential to manage them. Horizon Scanning (HS), defined as an exploration of potential threats, is considered a fundamental component of IAS management. By combining scientific knowledge on taxa with expert opinion, we identified the most relevant aquatic IAS in the Iberian Peninsula, i.e., those with the greatest geographic extent (or probability of introduction), severe ecological, economic and human health impacts, greatest difficulty and acceptability of management. We highlighted the 126 most relevant IAS already present in Iberian inland waters (i.e., Concern list) and 89 with a high probability of being introduced in the near future (i.e., Alert list), of which 24 and 10 IAS, respectively, were considered as a management priority after receiving the highest scores in the expert assessment (i.e., top-ranked IAS). In both lists, aquatic IAS belonging to the four thematic groups (plants, freshwater invertebrates, estuarine invertebrates, and vertebrates) were identified as having been introduced through various pathways from different regions of the world and classified according to their main functional feeding groups. Also, the latest update of the list of IAS of Union concern pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014 includes only 12 top-ranked IAS identified for the Iberian Peninsula, while the national lists incorporate the vast majority of them. This fact underlines the great importance of taxa prioritisation exercises at biogeographical scales as a step prior to risk analyses and their inclusion in national lists. This HS provides a robust assessment and a cost-effective strategy for decision-makers and stakeholders to prioritise the use of limited resources for IAS prevention and management. Although applied at a transnational level in a European biodiversity hotspot, this approach is designed for potential application at any geographical or administrative scale, including the continental one

LISTA NEGRA Y LISTA DE ALERTA DE ESPECIES EXÓTICAS INVASORAS ACUÁTICAS DE LA PENÍNSULA IBÉRICA - Ejercicio de exploración del horizonte transnacional centrado en las especies exóticas invasoras acuáticas de alto riesgo para las aguas interiores ibéricas.

Un objetivo importante de LIFE INVASAQUA es desarrollar herramientas que mejoren la gestión y sean más eficientes en el marco de Alerta Temprana y Respuesta Rápida (EWRR) para las Especies Exóticas Invasoras (EEI) en la Península Ibérica. La exploración del horizonte para las EEI de alto riesgo es básica para aplicar medidas que reduzcan las nuevas invasiones y para centrar los esfuerzos en las especies ya registradas. Desarrollamos un ejercicio transnacional de exploración del horizonte centrado en las aguas interiores de España y Portugal con el fin de proporcionar una lista negra de las EEI acuáticas actualmente establecidas y una lista de alerta de las EEI acuáticas potenciales que pueden suponer una amenaza para los ecosistemas acuáticos y los sectores socioeconómicos en el futuro. Para la exploración del horizonte seguimos un enfoque estructurado de 5 pasos que combinaba las pruebas existentes sobre las EEI con una puntuación de expertos de los taxones priorizados. En la lista negra final se priorizaron 126 EEI, que representan el 41,2% de los taxones exóticos registrados en las aguas continentales ibéricas. Las 24 primeras especies tenían un riesgo de impacto muy alto porque obtuvieron los valores máximos en el proceso de puntuación de la evaluación de riesgos. Además, la lista de alerta incluía 89 EEI con un riesgo significativo de invasión en la Península Ibérica en el futuro, estando 11 taxones en cabeza con un riesgo muy alto de invasión

The imaging magnetograph eXperiment for the SUNRISE balloon Antarctica project

13 pages, 8 figures.-- Published in: "Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Space Telescopes" [Section: Solar], edited by John C. Mather.-- Contributed to the conference with same title, Glasgow, Jun 21, 2004.Final full-text version available Open Access at: http://www.iaa.es/~jti/publications/SPIE2Valentin.pdfThe SUNRISE balloon project is a high-resolution mission to study solar magnetic fields able to resolve the critical scale of 100 km in the solar photosphere, or about one photon mean free path. The Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) is one of the three instruments that will fly in the balloon and will receive light from the 1m aperture telescope of the mission. IMaX should take advantage of the 15 days of uninterrupted solar observations and the exceptional resolution to help clarifying our understanding of thesmall-scale magnetic concentrations that pervade the solar surface. For this, IMaX should act as a diffraction limited imager able to carry out spectroscopic analysis with resolutions in the 50.000-100.000 range and capable to perform polarization measurements. The solutions adopted by the project to achieve all these three demanding goals are explained in this article. They include the use of Liquid Crystal Variable Retarders for the polarization modulation, oneLiNbO3 etalon in double pass and two modern CCD detectors that allow for the application of phase diversity techniques by slightly changing the focus of one of the CCDs.This project is funded by the Spanish Programa Nacional del Espacio under project ESP2003-07735.Peer reviewe

LIST OF POTENTIAL AQUATIC ALIEN SPECIES OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA (2020). Updated list of the potential aquatic alien species with high risk of invasion in Iberian inland waters.

An updated list is presented of the alien species in the transport or introduction invasion stage in inland waters of the Iberian Peninsula. The list is based on a systematic assessment of information in collaboration with a wide expert team from Spain and Portugal. This list is an important tool to support the implementation of the IAS Regulation, particularly in prevention measures and in the development of an Early Warning and Rapid Response (EWRR) system. Ultimately, the information included can help to the achievement of the target of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 for combatting IAS, but also for the implementation of other EU policies with requirements on alien species, such as the Birds and Habitats Directives, the Marine Strategy and Water Framework Directives