Tim Blackburn

Application of the Socio-Economic Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (SEICAT) to a global assessment of alien bird impacts

Publisher: Pensoft Publishers

Date: 15-10-2020

DOI: 10.3897/NEOBIOTA.62.51150

Abstract: We use a recently proposed framework, the Socio-Economic Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (SEICAT) to undertake the first global assessment of the impacts of alien birds on human well-being. A review of the published literature and online resources was undertaken to collate information on the reported socio-economic impacts of 415 bird species with self-sustaining alien populations worldwide. These data were then categorised following the SEICAT guidelines. Impact data were found for 57 (14%) of the 415 alien bird species in this study. All but two of these species were found to have minor impacts on human well-being. The most significant threat to human well-being posed by alien birds may be associated with their impacts on aviation safety. About two-thirds of the impact data found described agricultural impacts. No data were found describing disease transmission impacts on humans. We lack data for developing regions of the world: this is of concern as alien species can threaten livelihoods in developing countries, particularly by affecting agricultural production and hence food security. Most assessments were allocated a ‘Low’ confidence score. This may be because SEICAT is a new framework, requiring data on the way in which alien species affect human well-being, as measured by changes to human activities: even where we do have data describing an alien bird impact, information on how profoundly this impact affects people’s activities is currently rarely available.

The effect of conservation interventions on the abundance of breeding waders within nature reserves in the United Kingdom

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 03-08-2022

DOI: 10.1111/IBI.13106

Abstract: Breeding populations of many wading birds have declined globally, primarily caused by habitat degradation and loss. In the UK, population declines have been particularly notable on lowland wet grasslands. In response, some areas of lowland wet grassland have been restored and are under ongoing management to improve the breeding conditions of target species. Here, we assess the efficacy of management measures using a Bayesian framework and controlling for confounding factors. We focus on four wader species, Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus , Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata , Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago and Common Redshank Tringa totanus , that breed in numbers on wet grassland reserve sites in the UK. We collated annual site‐specific climate variables, management information (e.g. the creation of wet features and predator control measures) and bird counts between 1994 and 2018. We found the effects of conservation actions varied between intervention types and species. For Lapwing and Redshank, excluding predators by predator‐exclusion fencing, especially in combination with fox control, was generally associated with higher breeding counts. For all study species, sites with longer histories of management were associated with higher breeding numbers, with the effect of site age being particularly notable for management on former arable land. Our findings support the effectiveness of targeted conservation actions to achieve high numbers of breeding waders on lowland wet grassland reserves, and also highlight the value of consistent and reliable monitoring data.

Invasion costs, impacts, and human agency: response to Sagoff 2020

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 30-07-2020

DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13592

Alien species as a driver of recent extinctions

Publisher: The Royal Society

Date: 02-2016

DOI: 10.1098/RSBL.2015.0623

Abstract: We assessed the prevalence of alien species as a driver of recent extinctions in five major taxa (plants, hibians, reptiles, birds and mammals), using data from the IUCN Red List. Our results show that alien species are the second most common threat associated with species that have gone completely extinct from these taxa since AD 1500. Aliens are the most common threat associated with extinctions in three of the five taxa analysed, and for vertebrate extinctions overall.

Evidence for Rapoport’s rule and latitudinal patterns in the global distribution and diversity of alien bird species

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 03-03-2020

DOI: 10.1111/JBI.13825

Lasting the distance: The survival of alien birds shipped to New Zealand in the 19th century

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 07-03-2020

DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.6143

Abstract: Invasive alien species are a major threat to bio ersity and human activities, providing a strong incentive to understand the processes by which alien invasion occurs. While it is important to understand the determinants of success at each of several invasion stages—transport, introduction, establishment, and spread—few studies have explored the first of these stages. Here, we quantify and analyze variation in the success of in idual animals in surviving the transport stage, based on shipping records of European passerines destined for New Zealand. We mined the original documents of Acclimatisation Societies, established in New Zealand for the purpose of introducing supposedly beneficial alien species, in combination with recently digitized newspaper archives, to produce a unique dataset of 122 ships that carried passerines from Europe to New Zealand between 1850 and 1885. For 37 of these shipments, data on the survival of in idual species were available. Using generalized linear mixed models, we explored how survival was related to characteristics of the shipments and the species. We show that species differed greatly in their survival, but none of the tested traits accounted for these differences. Yet, survival increased over time, which mirrors the switch from early haphazard shipments to larger organized shipments. Our results imply that it was the quality of care received by the birds that most affected success at this stage of the invasion process.

MAcroecological Framework for Invasive Aliens (MAFIA): disentangling large-scale context dependence in biological invasions

Publisher: Pensoft Publishers

Date: 15-10-2020

DOI: 10.3897/NEOBIOTA.62.52787

Abstract: 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 ex le, analyses of the richness, ersity, 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 ex le 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.

Global hotspots and correlates of alien species richness across taxonomic groups

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 12-06-2017

DOI: 10.1038/S41559-017-0186

The impact of land use on non-native species incidence and number in local assemblages worldwide

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 12-04-2023

DOI: 10.1038/S41467-023-37571-0

Abstract: While the regional distribution of non-native species is increasingly well documented for some taxa, global analyses of non-native species in local assemblages are still missing. Here, we use a worldwide collection of assemblages from five taxa - ants, birds, mammals, spiders and vascular plants - to assess whether the incidence, frequency and proportions of naturalised non-native species depend on type and intensity of land use. In plants, assemblages of primary vegetation are least invaded. In the other taxa, primary vegetation is among the least invaded land-use types, but one or several other types have equally low levels of occurrence, frequency and proportions of non-native species. High land use intensity is associated with higher non-native incidence and frequency in primary vegetation, while intensity effects are inconsistent for other land-use types. These findings highlight the potential dual role of unused primary vegetation in preserving native bio ersity and in conferring resistance against biological invasions.

A general model for alien species richness

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 20-05-2019

DOI: 10.1007/S10530-019-02003-Y

How to incorporate information on propagule pressure in the analysis of alien establishment success

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 27-11-2017

DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12930

Colonization pressure: a second null model for invasion biology

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Date: 23-12-2019

DOI: 10.1007/S10530-019-02183-7

Abstract: Understanding the causes of spatial variation in the distribution and richness of alien species is a key goal of invasion biology. Thanks to the increasing availability of geographical compendia of alien species it is also the subject of a burgeoning scientific literature. Here, we review elements of this literature to argue that understanding the causes of variation in alien species richness cannot be achieved without knowledge of the number of species introduced to an area—termed colonization pressure. The implications of a lack of information on colonization pressure are widespread and, we believe, poorly recognised. We start by discussing a recent general model for alien species richness that demonstrates why colonization pressure is a fundamental determinant of this. We then explore the literature on alien species richness, particularly on islands, to demonstrate how failing to account for colonization pressure affects our perception of richness drivers. We further show that ignoring colonization pressure can bias our understanding of patterns in the distributions of alien species. We finish by discussing situations when colonization pressure may be more or less important for our understanding of alien invasions.

Assessing the global impact of targeted conservation actions on species abundance

Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC

Date: 05-06-2023

DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-2861352/V1

Abstract: Globally, vertebrate abundance has declined, and species’ extinction rates have increased, at unprecedented rates over recent decades 1,2. In response, targeted species interventions, such as conservation breeding programmes, legislative measures or species-specific habitat management, have been used to help address population declines and reduce and reverse the loss of bio ersity 3,4. Until now, assessments of conservation actions have focused on the extent to which they reduce extinction risk or focus on the impact of protected areas 4–9. Here, we extend our knowledge of conservation efficacy by quantifying the impact of targeted conservation actions on vertebrate abundance, analyzing data from 26,904 vertebrate populations across 4,629 species worldwide. Using a counterfactual approach to represent population trends in the absence of conservation, we show that targeted actions have delivered substantial positive effects on the abundance of recipient vertebrate populations worldwide. Positive trends were especially observed in vertebrate populations subject to species or habitat management. Our results provide compelling evidence that, with sufficient and sustained resourcing and commitment, successful implementation of Target 4 of the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Bio ersity Framework can readily help reverse global bio ersity loss and put nature on a path to recovery.

DAMA: the global Distribution of Alien Mammals database

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 05-10-2021

DOI: 10.1002/ECY.3474

Abstract: We developed the DAMA (Distribution of Alien Mammals) database, a comprehensive source reporting the global distribution of the 230 species of mammals that have established self‐sustaining and free‐ranging populations outside their native range due to direct or indirect human action. Every alien range is accompanied by information on its invasion stage, pathway, method of introduction, and date of introduction. We collected information from 827 different sources (scientific literature, books, risk assessments, reports, online bio ersity databases and websites), and used it to draw alien range maps for these species following the IUCN mapping framework. DAMA comprises 2,726 range polygons, covering 199 countries, 2,190 level 1 administrative areas, and 11 zoogeographic realms for the period 21500 BC–AD 2017. The most represented orders among introduced mammal species are Rodentia ( n = 58, 25.22%), Cetartiodactyla ( n = 49 species, 21.30%), Carnivora ( n = 30 species, 13.04%), Diprotodontia ( n = 28, 12.17%), and Primates ( n = 26, 11.30%). Mammal species have been frequently introduced for hunting ( n = 100), pet trade ( n = 57), conservation ( n = 51), and fauna improvement ( n = 42). The majority of range polygons are placed on islands ( n = 2,196, 80.56%), encompass populations that have moved beyond establishment and into the invasion stage ( n = 1,655, 60.71%), and originated from 1500 AD to the present ( n = 1,496, 54.88%). Despite inheriting literature biases towards more studied regions (e.g., developed countries), DAMA is the most up‐to‐date picture of alien mammal global distribution and can be used to investigate their invasion ecology across different biogeographical regions. There are no copyright or proprietary restrictions IUCN range maps were modified into a derivative work according to the IUCN’s terms of service.

The Zoological Society Of London

Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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University College London

Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

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Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP140100524

Start Date: 2014

End Date: 12-2018

Amount: $355,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0879605

Start Date: 04-2008

End Date: 04-2011

Amount: $400,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council