A review of impact assessment protocols of non-native plants

Impact assessment protocols (i.e. scoring systems) for non-native species have been developed and implemented relatively recently, driven by an increasing demand for desk study approaches to screen and classify non-native species, considering their environmental and socio-economic impacts. While a number of impact assessment protocols have been developed, there are no clear guidelines to help researchers, environmental practitioners and policy-makers understand their differences, uses and limitations, and to ultimately assist in the choice of protocol and practical implementation. In this review, we compare the main structure of 26 impact assessment protocols used for non-native plants. We describe these protocols in terms of the impact types that they include, the way in which impacts are categorized and ranked, how uncertainty is considered, and how the overall score is calculated. In general, environmental impacts are included more often than socio-economic impacts. Impacts are rated by estimates of the intensity, extent, persistence and reversibility of the impact. Uncertainty is mainly estimated by the availability and quality of the scientific information, but also by the agreement and relevance of the available evidence on impacts beyond the region in which the impact is assessed (including the assessment of climatic similarity with other invaded areas). The final impact score is usually calculated as the sum of scores, the maximum score achieved across all impact types, or a rule-based aggregation of impacts in order to provide a final rank of the non-native species. We finally indicate issues related with transparency, redundancy, clarity, friendliness, scope, scaling, reproducibility and flexibility as key challenges for impact assessment improvement

Global hotspots and correlates of alien species richness across taxonomic groups

Human-mediated transport beyond biogeographic barriers has led to the introduction and establishment of alien species in new regions worldwide. However, we lack a global picture of established alien species richness for multiple taxonomic groups. Here, we assess global patterns and potential drivers of established alien species richness across eight taxonomic groups (amphibians, ants, birds, freshwater fishes, mammals, vascular plants, reptiles and spiders) for 186 islands and 423 mainland regions. Hotspots of established alien species richness are predominantly island and coastal mainland regions. Regions with greater gross domestic product per capita, human population density, and area have higher established alien richness, with strongest effects emerging for islands. Ants and reptiles, birds and mammals, and vascular plants and spiders form pairs of taxonomic groups with the highest spatial congruence in established alien richness, but drivers explaining richness differ between the taxa in each pair. Across all taxonomic groups, our results highlight the need to prioritize prevention of further alien species introductions to island and coastal mainland regions globallyThis research benefited from support from the European Commission (COST Action TD1209). The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft supported H.S. (DFG, grant SE 1891/2-1), M.v.K. (KL 1866/9-1) and M.W. (FZT 118), the Austrian Science Foundation supported F.E., B.L. and D.M. (FWF, grant I2086-B16). P.P. and J.P. were supported by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (no. RVO 67985939), Praemium Academiae award to P.P. and Czech Science Foundation (project no. 14-36079G). C. Capinha was supported by a postdoctoral grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/MCTES) and POPH/FSE (EC) grant SFRH/BPD/84422/2012. E.G.-B. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (projects CGL2013-43822-R and CGL2015-69311-REDT

Inter-population variability in dietary traits of invasive bleak Alburnus alburnus (Actinopterygii, Cyprinidae) across the Iberian Peninsula

The bleak Alburnus alburnus is native to most of Europe. This cyprinid fish is a successful invader in the Iberian Peninsula. No studies exist on its foraging strategies on a large scale for this ecoregion. The aim of the present study was to compare dietary traits of invasive bleak among the main Iberian rivers and a "reference" native bleak population from France. Bleak were sampled during May-June 2019 from the Iberian Rivers Ebro, Tagus, Guadiana, Segura and Guadalquivir and the River Saône (France). Diptera larvae and zooplankton were common food categories in the River Saône. Insect nymphs were more important in the River Ebro. The intake of plant material was higher in the River Tagus. Flying insects were more consumed in the River Guadiana. Nektonic insects were important in the River Guadalquivir. Detritus was a frequent food category for all populations, in terms of occurrence and mass. Dietary parameters followed a unimodal response in relation to the latitudinal gradient, with the maximum values for the Tagus and Guadiana populations. Overall, results suggest that this wide interpopulation variability will contribute to the species¿ successful establishment throughout Mediterranean Europe, which poses a serious risk to its highly valuable native fish fauna

Inter-population variability in dietary traits of invasive bleak Alburnus alburnus (Actinopterygii, Cyprinidae) across the Iberian Peninsula

The bleak Alburnus alburnus is native to most of Europe. This cyprinid fish is a successful invader in the Iberian Peninsula. No studies exist on its foraging strategies on a large scale for this ecoregion. The aim of the present study was to compare dietary traits of invasive bleak among the main Iberian rivers and a "reference" native bleak population from France. Bleak were sampled during May-June 2019 from the Iberian Rivers Ebro, Tagus, Guadiana, Segura and Guadalquivir and the River Saône (France). Diptera larvae and zooplankton were common food categories in the River Saône. Insect nymphs were more important in the River Ebro. The intake of plant material was higher in the River Tagus. Flying insects were more consumed in the River Guadiana. Nektonic insects were important in the River Guadalquivir. Detritus was a frequent food category for all populations, in terms of occurrence and mass. Dietary parameters followed a unimodal response in relation to the latitudinal gradient, with the maximum values for the Tagus and Guadiana populations. Overall, results suggest that this wide interpopulation variability will contribute to the species¿ successful establishment throughout Mediterranean Europe, which poses a serious risk to its highly valuable native fish fauna

Global pressures, specific responses: effects of nutrient enrichment in streams from different biomes

We assessed the effects of nutrient enrichment on three stream ecosystems running through distinct biomes (Mediterranean, Pampean and Andean). We increased the concentrations of N and P in the stream water 1.6–4-fold following a before–after control–impact paired series (BACIPS) design in each stream, and evaluated changes in the biomass of bacteria, primary producers, invertebrates and fish in the enriched (E) versus control (C) reaches after nutrient addition through a predictive-BACIPS approach. The treatment produced variable biomass responses (2–77% of explained variance) among biological communities and streams. The greatest biomass response was observed for algae in the Andean stream (77% of the variance), although fish also showed important biomass responses (about 9–48%). The strongest biomass response to enrichment (77% in all biological compartments) was found in the Andean stream. The magnitude and seasonality of biomass responses to enrichment were highly site specific, often depending on the basal nutrient concentration and on windows of ecological opportunity (periods when environmental constraints other than nutrients do not limit biomass growth). The Pampean stream, with high basal nutrient concentrations, showed a weak response to enrichment (except for invertebrates), whereas the greater responses of Andean stream communities were presumably favored by wider windows of ecological opportunity in comparison to those from the Mediterranean stream. Despite variation among sites, enrichment globally stimulated the algal-based food webs (algae and invertebrate grazers) but not the detritus-based food webs (bacteria and invertebrate shredders). This study shows that nutrient enrichment tends to globally enhance the biomass of stream biological assemblages, but that its magnitude and extent within the food web are complex and are strongly determined by environmental factors and ecosystem structur