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More than “100 worst” alien species in Europe
Open accessAbstract
“One hundred worst” lists of alien species of the greatest concern proved useful for raising awareness of the risks and impacts of biological invasions amongst the general public, politicians and stakeholders. All lists so far have been based on expert opinion and primarily aimed at representativeness of the taxonomic and habitat diversity rather than at quantifying the harm the alien species cause. We used the generic impact scoring system (GISS) to rank 486 alien species established in Europe from a wide range of taxonomic groups to identify those with the highest environmental and socioeconomic impact. GISS assigns 12 categories of impact, each quantified on a scale from 0 (no impact detectable) to 5 (the highest impact possible). We ranked species by their total sum of scores and by the number of the highest impact scores. We also compared the listing based on GISS with other expert-based lists of the “worst” invaders. We propose a list of 149 alien species, comprising 54 plants, 49 invertebrates, 40 vertebrates and 6 fungi. Among the highest ranking species are one bird ( Branta canadensis ), four mammals ( Rattus norvegicus, Ondatra zibethicus, Cervus nippon, Muntiacus reevesi ), one crayfish ( Procambarus clarkii ), one mite ( Varroa destructor ), and four plants ( Acacia dealbata, Lantana camara, Pueraria lobata, Eichhornia crassipes ). In contrast to other existing expert-based “worst” lists, the GISS-based list given here highlights some alien species with high impacts that are not represented on any other list. The GISS provides an objective and transparent method to aid prioritization of alien species for management according to their impacts, applicable across taxa and habitats. Our ranking can also be used for justifying inclusion on lists such as the alien species of Union concern of the European Commission, and to fulfill Aichi target 9.
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“The IAS with the greatest impacts emerge from all taxonomic groups, as illustrated by the example of Europe.”
From Scientists' warning on invasive alien species (2020) · cites this paper as Nentwig et al., 2018
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“The European list of aliens with highest impacts includes 149 species: 54 plants, 49 invertebrates, 40 vertebrates, and six fungi.”
From Scientists' warning on invasive alien species (2020) · cites this paper as Nentwig et al., 2018
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Metadata
- Authors
- Nentwig, W., Bacher, S., Kumschick, S., Pyšek, P., & Vilà, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Bern (CH)
- University of Fribourg (CH)
- Stellenbosch University (ZA)
- Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Nentwig, Wolfgang
- Venue
- Biological Invasions
- Published
- 2017-12-18
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1611-1621
- ISSN
- 1387-3547 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-1464
- OpenAlex
- W2771159618
- Cited by
- 316
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 29 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 49 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 19
- FWCI
- 22.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2018-02-02)
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Biological Invasions (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RERO DOC (Universität Bern) (submittedVersion)
- SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University) (submittedVersion)
- BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern
- Funders
- COST Action TD1209 Alien Challenge (TD1209)
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CGL2015-65346R)
- Severo Ochoa Program for Centres of Excellence (SEV-2012-0262)
- Akademie Věd České Republiky (RVO 67985939)
- Czech Science Foundation (14-36079G)
- South African National Department of Environmental Affairs
- DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Keywords
- introduced species, species ranking, environmental impact, socio-economic impacts, invasive plants, invasive invertebrates, invasive vertebrates, invasive fungi, Procambarus clarkii, Varroa destructor, Lantana camara, water hyacinth, Rattus norvegicus, Ondatra zibethicus, sika deer, Reeves's muntjac, Canada goose, invasive crayfish, invasive birds, invasive mammals, Europe
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