Browsing by Author "Blackburn, T.M."
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- ItemAppropriate uses of EICAT protocol, data and classifications(2020) Kumschick, S.; Bacher, S.; Bertolino, S.; Blackburn, T.M.; Evans, T.; Roy, H.E.; Smith, K.The Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) can be used to classify alien taxa according to the magnitude and type of their environmental impacts. The EICAT protocol, classifications of alien taxa using the protocol (EICAT classification) and the data underpinning classifications (EICAT data) are increasingly used by scientists and practitioners such as governments, NGOs and civil society for a variety of purposes. However, the properties of the EICAT protocol and the data it generates are not suitable for certain uses. Therefore, we present guidelines designed to clarify and facilitate the appropriate use of EICAT to tackle a broad range of conservation issues related to biological invasions, as well as to guide research and communication more generally. Here we address common misconceptions and give a brief overview of some key issues that all EICAT users need to be aware of to take maximal advantage of this resource. Furthermore, we give examples of the wide variety of ways in which the EICAT protocol, classifications and data can be and have been utilised and outline common errors and pitfalls to avoid.
- ItemDefining the impact of non-native species(Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the Society for Conservation Biology, 2014) Jeschke, J.M.; Bacher, S.; Blackburn, T.M.; Dick, J.T.A.; Essl, F.; Evans, T.; Gaertner, M.; Hulme, P.E.; Kühn, I.; Mrugala, A.; Pergl, J.; Pyšek, P.; Rabitsch, W.; Ricciardi, A.; Richardson, D.M.; Sendek, A.; Vilá, M.; Winter, M.; Kumschick, S.Non-native species cause changes in the ecosystems to which they are introduced. These changes, or some of them, are usually termed impacts; they can be manifold and potentially damaging to ecosystems and biodiversity. However, the impacts of most non-native species are poorly understood, and a synthesis of available information is being hindered because authors often do not clearly define impact. We argue that explicitly defining the impact of non-native species will promote progress toward a better understanding of the implications of changes to biodiversity and ecosystems caused by non-native species; help disentangle which aspects of scientific debates about non-native species are due to disparate definitions and which represent true scientific discord; and improve communication between scientists from different research disciplines and between scientists, managers, and policy makers. For these reasons and based on examples from the literature, we devised seven key questions that fall into 4 categories: directionality, classification and measurement, ecological or socio-economic changes, and scale. These questions should help in formulating clear and practical definitions of impact to suit specific scientific, stakeholder, or legislative contexts.
- ItemEcological impacts of alien species: Quantification, scope, caveats, and recommendations(Oxford University Press, 2015) Kumschick, S.; Gaertner, M.; Vila, M.; Essl, F.; Jeschke, J.M.; Pysek, P.; Ricciardi, A.; Bacher, S.; Blackburn, T.M.; Dick, J.T.A.; Evans, T.; Hulme, P.E.; Kuhn, I.; Mrugala, A.; Pergl, J.; Rabitsch, W.; Richardson, D.M.; Sendek, A.; Winter, M.Despite intensive research during the past decade on the effects of alien species, invasion science still lacks the capacity to accurately predict the impacts of those species and, therefore, to provide timely advice to managers on where limited resources should be allocated. This capacity has been limited partly by the context-dependent nature of ecological impacts, research highly skewed toward certain taxa and habitat types, and the lack of standardized methods for detecting and quantifying impacts. We review different strategies, including specific experimental and observational approaches, for detecting and quantifying the ecological impacts of alien species. These include a four-way experimental plot design for comparing impact studies of different organisms. Furthermore, we identify hypothesis-driven parameters that should be measured at invaded sites to maximize insights into the nature of the impact. We also present strategies for recognizing high-impact species. Our recommendations provide a foundation for developing systematic quantitative measurements to allow comparisons of impacts across alien species, sites, and time.
- ItemEcological impacts of alien species: Quantification, scope, caveats, and recommendations(Oxford University Press, 2015) Kumschick, S.; Gaertner, M.; Vila, M.; Essl, F.; Jeschke, J.M.; Pysek, P.; Ricciardi, A.; Bacher, S.; Blackburn, T.M.; Dick, J.T.A.; Evans, T.; Hulme, P.E.; Kuhn, I.; Mrugala, A.; Pergl, J.; Rabitsch, W.; Richardson, D.M.; Sendek, A.; Winter, M.Despite intensive research during the past decade on the effects of alien species, invasion science still lacks the capacity to accurately predict the impacts of those species and, therefore, to provide timely advice to managers on where limited resources should be allocated. This capacity has been limited partly by the context-dependent nature of ecological impacts, research highly skewed toward certain taxa and habitat types, and the lack of standardized methods for detecting and quantifying impacts. We review different strategies, including specific experimental and observational approaches, for detecting and quantifying the ecological impacts of alien species. These include a four-way experimental plot design for comparing impact studies of different organisms. Furthermore, we identify hypothesis-driven parameters that should be measured at invaded sites to maximize insights into the nature of the impact. We also present strategies for recognizing high-impact species. Our recommendations provide a foundation for developing systematic quantitative measurements to allow comparisons of impacts across alien species, sites, and time.
- ItemFramework and guidelines for implementing the proposed IUCN Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT)(John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2015) Hawkins, C.L.; Bacher, S.; Essl, F.; Hulme, P.E.; Jeschke, J.M.; Kuhn, I.; Kumschick, S.; Nentwig, W.; Pergl, J.; Pysek, P.; Rabitsch, W.; Richardson, D.M.; Vila, M.; Wilson, J.R.U.; Genovesi, P.; Blackburn, T.M.Recently, Blackburn et al. (2014) developed a simple, objective and transparent method for classifying alien taxa in terms of the magnitude of their detrimental environmental impacts in recipient areas. Here, we present a comprehensive framework and guidelines for implementing this method, which we term the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa, or EICAT. We detail criteria for applying the EICAT scheme in a consistent and comparable fashion, prescribe the supporting information that should be supplied along with classifications, and describe the process for implementing the method. This comment aims to draw the attention of interested parties to the framework and guidelines, and to present them in their entirety in a location where they are freely accessible to any potential users.
- ItemImproving the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT): a summary of revisions to the framework and guidelines(2020) Volery, L.; Blackburn, T.M.; Bertolino, S.; Evans, T.; Genovesi, P.; Kumschick, S.; Roy, H.E.; Smith, K.G.; Bacher, S.The Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) classifies the impacts caused by alien species in their introduced range in standardised terms across taxa and recipient environments. Impacts are classified into one of five levels of severity, from Minimal Concern to Massive, via one of 12 impact mechanisms. Here, we explain revisions based on an IUCN-wide consultation process to the previously-published EICAT framework and guidelines, to clarify why these changes were necessary. These changes mainly concern: the distinction between the two highest levels of impact severity (Major and Massive impacts), the scenarios of the five levels of severity for the hybridisation and disease transmission mechanisms, the broadening of existing impact mechanisms to capture overlooked mechanisms, the Current (Maximum) Impact, and the way uncertainty of individual impact assessments is evaluated. Our aim in explaining this revision process is to ensure consistency of EICAT assessments, by improving the understanding of the framework.
- ItemInvasion costs, impacts, and human agency: response to Sagoff 2020(2020) Cuthbert, R.N.; Bacher, S.; Blackburn, T.M.; Briski, E.; Diagne, C.; Dick, J.T.A.; Essl, F.; Genovesi, P.; Haubrock, P.J.; Latombe, G.; Lenzner, B.; Meinard, Y.; Pauchard, A.; Pyšek, P.; Ricciardi, A.; Richardson, D.M.; Russell, J.C.; Simberloff, D.; Courchamp, F.Article impact statement: In an era of profound biodiversity crisis, invasion costs, invader impacts, and human agency should not be dismissed.
- ItemInvasion Science: A horizon scan of emerging challenges and oppurtunities(Elsevier Ltd., 2017) Ricciardi, A.; Blackburn, T.M.; Carlton, J.T.; Dick, J.T.A.; Hulme, P.E.; Iacarella, J.C.; Jeschke, J.M.; Liebhold, A.M.; Lockwood, J.L.; MacIsaac, H.J.; Pyšek, P.; Richardson, D.M.; Ruiz, G.M.; Simberloff, D.; Sutherland, W.J.; Wardle, D.A.; Aldridge, D.C.We identified emerging scientific, technological, and sociopolitical issues likely to affect how biological invasions are studied and managed over the next two decades. Issues were ranked according to their probability of emergence, pervasiveness, potential impact, and novelty. Top-ranked issues include the application of genomic modification tools to control invasions, effects of Arctic globalization on invasion risk in the Northern Hemisphere, commercial use of microbes to facilitate crop production, the emergence of invasive microbial pathogens, and the fate of intercontinental trade agreements. These diverse issues suggest an expanding interdisciplinary role for invasion science in biosecurity and ecosystem management, burgeoning applications of biotechnology in alien species detection and control, and new frontiers in the microbial ecology of invasions.
- ItemMAcroecological Framework for Invasive Aliens (MAFIA): disentangling large-scale context dependence in biological invasions(2020) Pyšek, P.; Bacher, S.; Kühn, I.; Novoa, A.; Catford, J.A.; Hulme, P.E.; Pergl, J.; Richardson, D.M.; Wilson, J.R.U.; Blackburn, T.M.Macroecology is the study of patterns, and the processes that determine those patterns, in the distribution and abundance of organisms at large scales, whether they be spatial (from hundreds of kilometres to global), temporal (from decades to centuries), and organismal (numbers of species or higher taxa). In the context of invasion ecology, macroecological studies include, for example, analyses of the richness, diversity, distribution, and abundance of alien species in regional floras and faunas, spatio-temporal dynamics of alien species across regions, and cross-taxonomic analyses of species traits among comparable native and alien species pools. However, macroecological studies aiming to explain and predict plant and animal naturalisations and invasions, and the resulting impacts, have, to date, rarely considered the joint effects of species traits, environment, and socioeconomic characteristics. To address this, we present the MAcroecological Framework for Invasive Aliens (MAFIA). The MAFIA explains the invasion phenomenon using three interacting classes of factors – alien species traits, location characteristics, and factors related to introduction events – and explicitly maps these interactions onto the invasion sequence from transport to naturalisation to invasion. The framework therefore helps both to identify how anthropogenic effects interact with species traits and environmental characteristics to determine observed patterns in alien distribution, abundance, and richness; and to clarify why neglecting anthropogenic effects can generate spurious conclusions. Event-related factors include propagule pressure, colonisation pressure, and residence time that are important for mediating the outcome of invasion processes. However, because of context dependence, they can bias analyses, for example those that seek to elucidate the role of alien species traits. In the same vein, failure to recognise and explicitly incorporate interactions among the main factors impedes our understanding of which macroecological invasion patterns are shaped by the environment, and of the importance of interactions between the species and their environment. The MAFIA is based largely on insights from studies of plants and birds, but we believe it can be applied to all taxa, and hope that it will stimulate comparative research on other groups and environments. By making the biases in macroecological analyses of biological invasions explicit, the MAFIA offers an opportunity to guide assessments of the context dependence of invasions at broad geographical scales.
- ItemSocio-economic impact classification of alien taxa (SEICAT)(British Ecological Society, 2018) Bacher, S.; Blackburn, T.M.; Essl, F.; Genovesi, P.; Heikkilä, J.; Jeschke, J.M.; Jones, G.; Keller, R.; Kenis, M.; Kueffer, C.; Martinou, A.F.; Nentwig, W.; Pergl, J.; Pyšek, P.; Rabitsch, W.; Richardson, D.M.; Roy, H.E.; Saul, W.-C.; Scalera, R.; Vilà, M.; Wilson, J.R.U.; Kumschick, S.1. Many alien taxa are known to cause socio-economic impacts by affecting the different constituents of human well-being (security; material and non-material assets; health; social, spiritual and cultural relations; freedom of choice and action). Attempts to quantify socio-economic impacts in monetary terms are unlikely to provide a useful basis for evaluating and comparing impacts of alien taxa because they are notoriously difficult to measure and important aspects of human well-being are ignored. 2. Here, we propose a novel standardised method for classifying alien taxa in terms of the magnitude of their impacts on human well-being, based on the capability approach from welfare economics. The core characteristic of this approach is that it uses changes in peoples’ activities as a common metric for evaluating impacts on well-being. 3. Impacts are assigned to one of five levels, from Minimal Concern to Massive, according to semi-quantitative scenarios that describe the severity of the impacts. Taxa are then classified according to the highest level of deleterious impact that they have been recorded to cause on any constituent of human well-being. The scheme also includes categories for taxa that are not evaluated, have no alien population, or are data deficient, and a method for assigning uncertainty to all the classifications. To demonstrate the utility of the system, we classified impacts of amphibians globally. These showed a variety of impacts on human well-being, with the cane toad (Rhinella marina) scoring Major impacts. For most species, however, no studies reporting impacts on human well-being were found, i.e. these species were data deficient. 4. The classification provides a consistent procedure for translating the broad range of measures and types of impact into ranked levels of socio-economic impact, assigns alien taxa on the basis of the best available evidence of their documented deleterious impacts, and is applicable across taxa and at a range of spatial scales. The system was designed to align closely with the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) and the Red List, both of which have been adopted by the International Union of Nature Conservation (IUCN), and could therefore be readily integrated into international practices and policies.