INVASIVESNET towards an International Association for Open Knowledge on Invasive Alien Species

In a world where invasive alien species (IAS) are recognised as one of the major threats to biodiversity, leading scientists from five continents have come together to propose the concept of developing an international association for open knowledge and open data on IAS—termed “INVASIVESNET”. This new association will facilitate greater understanding and improved management of invasive alien species (IAS) and biological invasions globally, by developing a sustainable network of networks for effective knowledge exchange. In addition to their inclusion in the CBD Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, the increasing ecological, social, cultural and economic impacts associated with IAS have driven the development of multiple legal instruments and policies. This increases the need for greater co-ordination, co-operation, and information exchange among scientists, management, the community of practice and the public. INVASIVESNET will be formed by linking new and existing networks of interested stakeholders including international and national expert working groups and initiatives, individual scientists, database managers, thematic open access journals, environmental agencies, practitioners, managers, industry, non-government organisations, citizens and educational bodies. The association will develop technical tools and cyberinfrastructure for the collection, management and dissemination of data and information on IAS; create an effective communication platform for global stakeholders; and promote coordination and collaboration through international meetings, workshops, education, training and outreach. To date, the sustainability of many strategic national and international initiatives on IAS have unfortunately been hampered by time-limited grants or funding cycles. Recognising that IAS initiatives need to be globally coordinated and ongoing, we aim to develop a sustainable knowledge sharing association to connect the outputs of IAS research and to inform the consequential management and societal challenges arising from IAS introductions. INVASIVESNET will provide a dynamic and enduring network of networks to ensure the continuity of connections among the IAS community of practice, science and management

Structuring evidence for invasional meltdown: broad support but with biases and gaps

14 páginas.-- 6 figuras.-- 4 tablas.-- 53 referencias.-- Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10530-017-1582-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Negative interactions have been suggested as a major barrier for species arriving in a new habitat. More recently, positive interactions drew attention from community assembly theory and invasion science. The invasional meltdown hypothesis (IMH) introduced the idea that positive interactions among non-native species could facilitate one another’s invasion, even increasing their impact upon the native community. Many studies have addressed IMH, but with contrasting results, reflecting various types of evidence on a multitude of scales. Here we use the hierarchy-of-hypotheses (HoH) approach to differentiate key aspects of IMH, organizing and linking empirical studies to sub-hypotheses of IMH. We also assess the level of empirical support for each sub-hypothesis based on the evidence reported in the studies. We identified 150 studies addressing IMH. The majority of studies support IMH, but the evidence comes from studies with different aims and questions. Supporting studies at the community or ecosystem level are currently rare. Evidence is scarce for marine habitats and vertebrates. Few sub-hypotheses are questioned by more than 50% of the evaluated studies, indicating that non-native species do not affect each other’s survival, growth, reproduction, abundance, density or biomass in reciprocal A ↔ B interactions. With the HoH for IMH presented here, we can monitor progress in empirical tests and evidences of IMH. For instance, more tests at the community and ecosystem level are needed, as these are necessary to address the core of this hypothesis. © 2017 The Author(s)Peer reviewe

Ecological impacts of non-native tree species plantations are broad and heterogeneous: a review of Brazilian research

RESUMO Plantações de árvores não nativas representam 7% das florestas do mundo e 1,24% da vegetação brasileira. Essas áreas plantadas devem aumentar no futuro próximo; assim, é importante sistematizar o conhecimento existente sobre os efeitos ecológicos das plantações para auxiliar o manejo florestal e a conservação da biodiversidade. Aqui, realizamos uma revisão sistemática da literatura ecológica associada com espécies plantadas de Pinus e de Eucalyptus no Brasil. Nós comparamos as métricas de publicação com: a distribuição geográfica das espécies, os tipos de ecossistemas, os biomas, os taxa, e os impactos ecológicos. Encontramos 152 publicações entre 1992 e 2012. O número de publicações está positivamente correlacionada com a área plantada, número de plantações com certificação florestal, número de investigadores existente, e riqueza de reinos estudados. A maioria dos estudos foram em ecossistemas terrestres (92,1%), no bioma Mata Atlântica (55,3%), e no reino Animalia (68,2%). A maioria dos impactos das plantações de árvores não nativas foram negativas (55,9%), seguido pelo positivo (27%) e mista (17,1%). Impactos negativos foram declínios na riqueza e abundância de espécies, diversidade no banco de sementes e regeneração natural. Impactos positivos foram o aumento ou manutenção da diversidade banco de sementes e regeneração natural. Impactos mistos foram os aumentos na abundância de pragas de plantação de árvores nativas. Tomados em conjunto, nossos resultados sugerem que o manejo florestal pode ajudar a manter a biodiversidade se considerar as condições ambientais anteriores e integrar plantações com habitats nativos adjacentes

Use of food resources and resource partitioning among five syntopic species of Hypostomus (Teleostei: Loricariidae) in an Atlantic Forest river in southern Brazil

ABSTRACT We analyzed the diet and resource partitioning among five syntopic species of Hypostomus Lacépède, 1803 in the Corumbataí River in southeastern Brazil. The gut contents of 352 individuals were assessed and 21 food items were identified and quantified under an optical microscope. The food items found in the gut contents indicate that these suckermouth loricariids are bottom-dwelling detritivorous/periphytivorous catfishes. PERMANOVA and SIMPER analyses indicated variation in the consumption of some resources, and the contribution of periphytic algae was primarily responsible for such dissimilarity. ECOSIM analyses of dietary overlap showed evidence of resource sharing among all species in the dry and rainy periods. This is most likely the result of the predominance of detritus and autochthonous items such as algae and aquatic immature insects in all gut contents. Our data suggest that trophic resources available in the Corumbataí River are explored and partitioned among Hypostomus species, all specialized in surface-grazing foraging behaviour

Use of food resources and resource partitioning among five syntopic species of Hypostomus (Teleostei: Loricariidae) in an Atlantic Forest river in southern Brazil

ABSTRACT We analyzed the diet and resource partitioning among five syntopic species of Hypostomus Lacépède, 1803 in the Corumbataí River in southeastern Brazil. The gut contents of 352 individuals were assessed and 21 food items were identified and quantified under an optical microscope. The food items found in the gut contents indicate that these suckermouth loricariids are bottom-dwelling detritivorous/periphytivorous catfishes. PERMANOVA and SIMPER analyses indicated variation in the consumption of some resources, and the contribution of periphytic algae was primarily responsible for such dissimilarity. ECOSIM analyses of dietary overlap showed evidence of resource sharing among all species in the dry and rainy periods. This is most likely the result of the predominance of detritus and autochthonous items such as algae and aquatic immature insects in all gut contents. Our data suggest that trophic resources available in the Corumbataí River are explored and partitioned among Hypostomus species, all specialized in surface-grazing foraging behaviour

Invasional meltdown hypothesis

Peer reviewe

Food web changes associated with drought and invasive species in a tropical semiarid reservoir

15 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, supplementary material https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-017-3432-8Fish and invertebrates are introduced in freshwaters around the world for commercial purposes, despite widely known impacts on food webs and biological invasions. As a proxy for artificial environments, we modeled a typical reservoir in a Brazilian semiarid region using an ecosystem approach. We compared the role of native and non-native invasive species (NIS) in the food web, between dry and wet periods, and under the influence of an extreme drought period (from 2011 to 2015), simulating the variation in fish biomasses due to decreasing consumption. Key ecosystem groups were fishes (mainly NIS), birds, and insects. Nutrient cycling was dependent on invaders, while the trophic structure was detritus based during the drought. Biomass of detritivores was almost two times higher than herbivores, and native fish species decreased abruptly in response to invaders and volume variation. The dominance of low-trophic levels (TLII) and tilapia—Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus, 1758) and other tilapiines—resulted from interactions among invaders, feeding behavior on benthos, and environmental seasonality, tending toward biotic homogenization (“benthification”) at the ecosystem level. An increasing relevance of detritivores with cascading effects in ecosystems subject to drought, multiple introductions, and ubiquitous food sources has clear implications for the fisheries and the water qualityWe are thankful to the Fundação Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (FUNCAP, AE1-0052-00044.01.00/11 SPU nº: 11295057-4) for the funding to this project. Coordenadoria de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for granting the first author with scholarships and funding M. Coll (PVE A063-2013), and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the funding to JRS Vitule (310850/2012-6 and 303776/2015-3)Peer Reviewe

The rise of the Functional Response in invasion science: a systematic review

Predicting which non-native species will negatively impact biodiversity is a longstanding research priority. The Functional Response (FR; resource use in relation to availability) is a classical ecological concept that has been increasingly applied to quantify, assess and compare ecological impacts of non-native species. Despite this recent growth, an overview of applications and knowledge gaps across relevant contexts is currently lacking. We conducted a systematic review using a combination of terms regarding FR and invasion science to synthesise scientific studies that apply the FR approach in the field and to suggest new areas where it could have valuable applications. Trends of publications using FR in invasion science and publications about FR in general were compared through the Activity Index. Data were extracted from papers to reveal temporal, bibliographic, and geographic trends, patterns in study attributes such as type of interaction and habitat investigated, taxonomic groups used, and context-dependencies assessed. In total, 120 papers were included in the review. We identified substantial unevenness in the reporting of FRs in invasion science, despite a rapidly growing number of studies. To date, research has been geographically skewed towards North America and Europe, as well as towards predator-prey interactions in freshwater habitats. Most studies have focused on a few species of invertebrates and fishes. Species origin, life stage, environmental temperature and habitat complexity were the most frequently considered context-dependencies. We conclude that while the FR approach has thus far been narrowly applied, it has broad potential application in invasion science and can be used to test major hypotheses in this research field