InvasiBES: Understanding and managing the impacts of Invasive alien species on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Invasive Alien Species (IAS) are amongst the most significant drivers of species extinction and ecosystem degradation, causing negative impacts on ecosystem services and human well-being. InvasiBES, a project funded by BiodivERsA-Belmont Forum for 2019–2021, will use data and models across scales, habitats and species to understand and anticipate the multi-faceted impacts of IAS and to provide tools for their management. Using Alien Species Narratives as reference, we will design future intervention scenarios focused on prevention, control and eradication of IAS in Europe and the United States, through a participatory process bringing together the expertise of scientists and stakeholders. We will also adapt current impact assessment protocols to assess both the detrimental and beneficial impacts of IAS on biodiversity and ecosystem services. This information will then be combined with maps of the potential distribution of Invasive Species of Interest in Europe under current and future climate-change scenarios. Likewise, we will anticipate areas under risk of invasion by range-shifting plants of concern in the US. Finally, focusing on three local-scale studies that cover a range of habitats (freshwater, terrestrial and marine), invasive species (plants and animals) and ecosystem services (supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural), we will use empirical field data to quantify the real-world impacts of IAS on biodiversity and ecosystem services and calculate indicators of ecosystem recovery after the invader is removed. Spatial planning tools (InVEST) will be used to evaluate the costs and benefits of species-specific intervention scenarios at the regional scale. Data, models and maps, developed throughout the project, will serve to build scenarios and models of biodiversity and ecosystem services that are relevant to underpin management of IAS at multiple scales

Response of benthic macroinvertebrates to gradients in hydrological connectivity: a comparison of temperate, subtropical, Mediterranean and semiarid river floodplains

Versión pre-print (distinto título). [The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com][EN] Despite a general recognition that benthic macroinvertebrates respond to changes in hydrological connectivity within floodplain ecosystems, no consensus about patterns in community structure and ecosystem processes across large scales and different climates has yet been established. Such knowledge is necessary since anthropogenic activities continue to alter the natural hydrogeomorphology of large floodplains, with most consequences for aquatic communities remaining unknown. Using information from six large rivers located in four different climate regions (humid subtropical, maritime temperate, Mediterranean and dry semi-arid), we compared benthic macroinvertebrate responses along lateral gradients of hydrological connectivity. We tested hypotheses related to differences among climate regions and to similar hydrological constraints within any one climate. The large geographical scale covered by this study provides the first comprehensive comparison of aquatic community patterns across hydrological gradients under different climatic settings. Multivariate ordinations demonstrated a higher overlap of trait community composition (50% variance explained by the first two axes) than taxonomic composition (15%) among floodplains, displaying high interclimate trait stability. The taxonomy-based ordination separated the subtropical floodplain, with an average 86% of non-insect taxa, from the insect-dominated temperate, Mediterranean and semi-arid floodplains (with >50% insect abundance). In the trait-based ordination, large body size (60% of organisms >4 cm) and long lifespan duration (80% of organisms) discriminated the subtropical from the other five studied floodplains. Across a gradient of lateral connectivity, linear mixed effect (LME) models supported seven of 15 hypotheses, which suggests remarkably consistent macroinvertebrate patterns in floodplains regardless of the climate regime. Taxon and trait richness were positively related and peaked at sites of intermediate hydrological connectivity. Our predictions about the feeding guilds of macroinvertebrates (e.g. that shredders and scrapers would be more abundant in connected channels, and predators and deposit feeders at isolated sites) were more strongly supported by the data than those about life history (e.g. plurivoltinism and short lifespan would be better represented in connected channels). This difference was related to the influence of extended periods of hydrological disconnection as disturbance in addition to flooding. Trait stability across hydrological connectivity provides a meaningful ecological context for the comparison of the macroinvertebrate benthos among climatic zones, where taxonomic composition differs strongly. In addition, trait similarities and dissimilarities found in this study suggest that large-scale biogeographical filters do operate on communities, resulting in different trait combinations in temperate and Mediterranean floodplains when compared to semi-arid and subtropical environments. The extent to which global macroecological factors (i.e. climate, dispersal history) and local biotic and abiotic factors (i.e. drought frequency, habitat structure, water chemistry) contribute to this difference requires further investigation.Research in the Ebro River was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN CGL2008 – 05153-C02-01/BOS) and supported by the Departments of Environment and Research-Aragon Government (Research Group E-61 on Ecological Restoration). The main author B.G. received funding from the Department of Science Technology and University- Aragon Government (B061-2005 pre-doctoral grant) and CAI-Foundation (Programa Europa XXI, travel fellowship). Data from the Rhône River were obtained during the ecological and hydraulic restoration programme of the upper Rhône River funded by the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR), Agence de l'Eau Rhône-Méditerranée et Corse, DREAL Délégation de Bassin (RMC), Région Rhône-Alpes and Syndicat du Haut-Rhône. Research in the Paraná River was funded by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL). We thank two anonymous reviewers and the Editor (Alan Hildrew) whose comments greatly improved the quality of this paper.Peer reviewe

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 de especies exóticas acuáticas de la Península Ibérica (2020)

Se presenta una lista actualizada de las especies exóticas que se encuentran en etapa de establecimiento o de propagación de la invasión en aguas continentales de la península ibérica. La lista está basada en la evaluación sistemática de los datos en colaboración con un amplio equipo de expertos de España y Portugal. Esta lista de actualización es un instrumento de apoyo importante para la aplicación del Reglamento de la Unión Europea (UE) sobre las especies exóticas invasoras (EEI) y también proporciona una base objetiva para el examen de su aplicación. En última instancia, la información incluida puede utilizarse para supervisar el cumplimiento del objetivo de la Estrategia de la UE sobre diversidad biológica hasta 2030 para combatir las EEI, pero también para la aplicación de otras políticas de la UE con requisitos sobre especies exóticas, como las Directivas de Hábitats y Aves, la Directiva Marco sobre la Estrategia Marina (DMEM) y la Directiva Marco del Agua (DMA)