Socio‐economic impact classification of alien taxa (SEICAT)
Open accessAbstract
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. 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. 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. 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.
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Impacts of biological invasions extend beyond monetary losses and affect all components of human well-being.
“However, impacts of biological invasions extend beyond monetary losses and affect all components of human well‐being (Bacher et al., 2018).”
From Scientists' warning on invasive alien species (2020) · cites this paper as Bacher et al., 2018
The Introduction says impacts of alien taxa extend beyond monetary costs. Section 2 lists multiple constituents of human well-being that alien taxa may affect, including security, health, assets, and social and cultural relations. It does not establish that biological invasions affect all components of well-being; the source uses the qualified phrase “may be affected.” Page numbers are not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAlien species can be poisonous or venomous.
“Moreover, alien species can vector pathogens (e.g. tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, for dengue fever; Hulme, 2014b ; Brady & Hay, 2020), produce allergenic pollen (common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia; Richter et al., 2013), and be poisonous (e.g. cane toad; Bacher et al., 2018) or venomous (e.g. sea jellies; Kideys & Gucu, 1995).”
From Scientists' warning on invasive alien species (2020) · cites this paper as Bacher et al., 2018
The Application section (page unavailable) reports food poisoning from toxic alien animals and a fatal case involving an Asian common toad. It discusses the cane toad separately but does not identify the cane toad as poisonous. The venomous sea-jelly example is attributed to a different citation in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cane toad has caused local extinction of native reptile and mammal species from northern Australia used by Aborigines as totems, preventing continuation of these rituals.
“The cane toad, for example, has caused the local extinction of native reptile and mammal species from northern Australia (Letnic, Webb, & Shine, 2008) used by Aborigines as totems, preventing continuation of these rituals (Bacher et al., 2018).”
From Scientists' warning on invasive alien species (2020) · cites this paper as Bacher et al., 2018
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Scientists' warning on invasive alien species
Pyšek, P., Hulme, P. E., Simberloff, D., Bacher, S., Blackburn, T. M., Carlton, J. T., Dawson, W., Essl, F., Foxcroft, L. C., Genovesi, P., et al. (2020) · Biological Reviews · doi:10.1111/brv.12627 · Cited by 2,234 · see citing works
“However, impacts of biological invasions extend beyond monetary losses and affect all components of human well-being (Bacher et al., 2018).”
BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationMore than “100 worst” alien species in Europe
Nentwig, W., Bacher, S., Kumschick, S., Pyšek, P., & Vilà, M. (2018) · Biological Invasions · doi:10.1007/s10530-017-1651-6 · Cited by 316 · see citing works
Self-citationBioinvasion impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human health in the Mediterranean Sea
Tsirintanis, K., Azzurro, E., Crocetta, F., Dimiza, M., Froglia, C., Gerovasileiou, V., Langeneck, J., Mancinelli, G., Rosso, A., Stern, N., et al. (2022) · Aquatic Invasions · doi:10.3391/ai.2022.17.3.01 · Cited by 182 · see citing works
- Authors
- 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., Scalera, R., Vilà, M., Wilson, J. R. U., & Kumschick, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Fribourg (CH)
- Zoological Society of London (GB)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (IT)
- Natural Resources Institute Finland (FI)
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (DE)
- Fera Science (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Loyola University Chicago (US)
- CABI Switzerland (CH)
- Stellenbosch University (ZA)
- Joint Services Health Unit RAF Akrotiri Akrotiri Cyprus
- University of Bern (CH)
- Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ)
- Environment Agency Austria (AT)
- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (GB)
- IUCN/SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group Rome Italy
- Estación Biológica de Doñana (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Bacher, Sven
- ORCID
- Bacher, Sven
- Blackburn, Tim M.
- Essl, Franz
- Genovesi, Piero
- Jeschke, Jonathan M.
- Jones, Glyn
- Keller, Reuben
- Kenis, Marc
- Kueffer, Christoph
- Martinou, Angeliki F.
- Nentwig, Wolfgang
- Pergl, Jan
- Pyšek, Petr
- Rabitsch, Wolfgang
- Richardson, David M.
- Roy, Helen E.
- Saul, Wolf‐Christian
- Vilà, Montserrat
- Wilson, John R. U.
- Kumschick, Sabrina
- Venue
- Methods in Ecology and Evolution
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-07-31
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 159-168
- ISSN
- 2041-210X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2740725995
- Cited by
- 378
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 53 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 22.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Methods in Ecology and Evolution (publishedVersion)
- NERC Open Research Archive (Natural Environment Research Council) (acceptedVersion)
- SUNScholar (Stellenbosch University) (submittedVersion)
- BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
- reroDoc Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Jukuri (Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)) (submittedVersion)
- Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin) (submittedVersion)
- Universitätsbibliothek der FU Berlin Hochschulschriftenstelle u. Dokumentenserver
- Funders
- Grantová Agentura České Republiky (14‐36079G)
- Akademie Věd České Republiky (RVO 67985939)
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (ERA‐Net BiodivERsA JE 288/7‐1, JE 288/9‐1)
- Austrian Science Fund (I2096‐B16)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Biological Control of Invasive Species
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
- Keywords
- alien taxa, socio-economic impacts, human well-being, capability approach, impact classification, invasive species, amphibians, Rhinella marina, uncertainty, insufficient data, red list, IUCN
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