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Ecological impacts of alien species: quantification, scope, caveats, and recommendations

  • Kumschick, Sabrina Centre for Invasion Biology, in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University, in Matieland, South Africa
  • Gaertner, Mirijam Centre for Invasion Biology, in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University, in Matieland, South Africa
  • Vilà, Montserrat Estación Biológica de Doñana, in Seville, Spain
  • Essl, Franz Department of Conservation Biology, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology at the University of Vienna, Austria
  • Jeschke, Jonathan M. Technische Universität München's Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Restoration Ecology, in Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany
  • Pyšek, Petr Department of Ecology, in the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague
  • Ricciardi, Anthony Redpath Museum, at McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • Bacher, Sven Department of Biology, in the Unit Ecology and Evolution at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Blackburn, Tim M. Institute of Zoology of the Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom - Evironment Institute, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  • Dick, Jaimie T. A. Institute for Global Food Security, in the School of Biological Sciences at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
  • Evans, Thomas Thomas Evans is affiliated with Imperial College London's Silwood Park Campus, in Berkshire, United Kingdom
  • Hulme, Philip E. Bio-Protection Research Centre, at Lincoln University, in Christchurch, New Zealand
  • Kühn, Ingolf Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research's Department of Community Ecology - Martin-Luther-University Halle–Wittenberg's Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, in Halle, Germany
  • Mrugała, Agata Department of Ecology, in the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague
  • Pergl, Jan Department of Invasion Ecology, in the Institute of Botany at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, in Průhonice
  • Rabitsch, Wolfgang Environment Agency Austria's Department of Biodiversity and Nature Conservation, Vienna, Austria
  • Richardson, David M. Centre for Invasion Biology, in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University, in Matieland, South Africa
  • Sendek, Agnieszka German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
  • Winter, Marten German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
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    01.01.2015
Published in:
  • BioScience. - 2015, vol. 65, no. 1, p. 55-63
English 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.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Biologie
Language
  • English
Classification
Biological sciences
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/304131
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