Comparing environmental impacts of alien plants, insects and pathogens in protected riparian forests

By

Lapin, Katharina
Bacher, Sven
Cech, Thomas
Damjanić, Rok
Essl, Franz
Georges, Isabel
Hoch, Gernot
Kavčič, Andreja
Koltay, András
Kostić, Saša
Lukić, Ivan
Marinšek, Aleksander
Nagy, László
Novak Agbaba, Sanja
Oettel, Janine
Orlović, Saša
Poljaković- Pajnik, Leopold
Sallmannshofer, Markus
Steinkellner, Martin
Stojnic, Srdjan
Westergren, Marjana
Zlatkovic, Milica
Zolles, Anita
de Groot, Maarten

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021

Original Publication

NeoBiota : advancing research on alien species and biological invasions

Volume

69

Pages

1--28

Subjects

Alien species , Biological invasions , EICAT , invasive species management , Protected areas , species prioritization

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sophia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.69.71651

 

Abstract

The prioritization of alien species according to the magnitude of their environmental impacts has become increasingly important for the management of invasive alien species. In this study, we applied the Environmental Impact Classification of Alien Taxa (EICAT) to classify alien taxa from three different taxonomic groups to facilitate the prioritisation of management actions for the threatened riparian forests of the Mura-Drava-Danube Biosphere Reserve, South East Europe. With local experts we collated a list of 198 alien species (115 plants, 45 insects, and 38 fungi) with populations reported in southeast European forest ecosystems and included them in the EICAT. We found impact reports for 114 species. Eleven of these species caused local extinctions of a native species, 35 led to a population decrease, 51 to a reduction in performance in at least one native species and for 17 alien species no effects on individual fitness of native species were detected. Fungi had significantly highest impact and were more likely to have information on their impacts reported. Competition and parasitism were the most important impact mechanisms of alien species. This study is, to our knowledge, the first application of EICAT to all known alien species of several taxonomic groups in a protected area. The impact rankings enabled to identify taxa that generally cause high impacts and to prioritize species for the management in protected areas according to their impact magnitudes. By following a standardized impact protocol, we identified several alien species causing high impacts that do not appear on any expert-based risk list, which are relevant for policymakers. Thus, we recommend that alien species be systematically screened to identify knowledge gaps and prioritize their management with respect to spatio-temporal trends in impact magnitudes.