Université de Fribourg

Projecting the continental accumulation of alien species through to 2050

Seebens, Hanno ; Bacher, Sven ; Blackburn, Tim M. ; Capinha, César ; Dawson, Wayne ; Dullinger, Stefan ; Genovesi, Piero ; Hulme, Philip E. ; Kleunen, Mark ; Kühn, Ingolf ; Jeschke, Jonathan M. ; Lenzner, Bernd ; Liebhold, Andrew M. ; Pattison, Zarah ; Pergl, Jan ; Pyšek, Petr ; Winter, Marten ; Essl, Franz

In: Global Change Biology, 2020, p. gcb.15333

Biological invasions have steadily increased over recent centuries. However, we still lack a clear expectation about future trends in alien species numbers. In particular, we do not know whether alien species will continue to accumulate in regional floras and faunas, or whether the pace of accumulation will decrease due to the depletion of native source pools. Here, we apply a new model to...

Université de Fribourg

Scientists’ warning on invasive alien species

Pyšek, Petr ; Hulme, Philip E. ; Simberloff, Dan ; Bacher, Sven ; Blackburn, Tim M. ; Carlton, James T. ; Dawson, Wayne ; Essl, Franz ; Foxcroft, Llewellyn C. ; Genovesi, Piero ; Jeschke, Jonathan M. ; Kühn, Ingolf ; Liebhold, Andrew M. ; Mandrak, Nicholas E. ; Meyerson, Laura A. ; Pauchard, Aníbal ; Pergl, Jan ; Roy, Helen E. ; Seebens, Hanno ; Kleunen, Mark ; Vilà, Montserrat ; Wingfield, Michael J. ; Richardson, David M.

In: Biological Reviews, 2020, p. brv.12627

Biological invasions are a global consequence of an increasingly connected world and the rise in human population size. The numbers of invasive alien species – the subset of alien species that spread widely in areas where they are not native, affecting the environment or human livelihoods – are increasing. Synergies with other global changes are exacerbating current invasions and...

Université de Fribourg

Socio-economic impact classification of alien taxa (SEICAT)

Bacher, Sven ; Blackburn, Tim M. ; Essl, Franz ; Genovesi, Piero ; Heikkilä, Jaakko ; 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 ; Scalera, Riccardo ; Vilà, Montserrat ; Wilson, John R. U. ; Kumschick, Sabrina

In: Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 2017, p. -

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...

Université de Fribourg

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

Kumschick, Sabrina ; Gaertner, Mirijam ; Vilà, Montserrat ; Essl, Franz ; Jeschke, Jonathan M. ; Pyšek, Petr ; Ricciardi, Anthony ; Bacher, Sven ; Blackburn, Tim M. ; Dick, Jaimie T.A. ; Evans, Thomas ; Hulme, Philip E. ; Kühn, Ingolf ; Mrugała, Agata ; Pergl, Jan ; Rabitsch, Wolfgang ; Richardson, David M. ; Sendek, Agnieszka ; Winter, Marten

In: BioScience, 2015, vol. 65, no. 1, p. 55-63

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...

Université de Fribourg

A unified classification of alien species based on the magnitude of their environmental impacts

Blackburn, Tim M. ; Essl, Franz ; Evans, Thomas ; Hulme, Philip E. ; Jeschke, Jonathan M. ; Kühn, Ingolf ; Kumschick, Sabrina ; Marková, Zuzana ; Mrugała, Agata ; Nentwig, Wolfgang ; Pergl, Jan ; Pyšek, Petr ; Rabitsch, Wolfgang ; Ricciardi, Anthony ; Richardson, David M. ; Sendek, Agnieszka ; Vilà, Montserrat ; Wilson, John R. U. ; Winte, Marten ; Genovesi, Piero ; Bacher, Sven

In: PLoS Biol, 2014, vol. 12, no. 5, p. e1001850

Species moved by human activities beyond the limits of their native geographic ranges into areas in which they do not naturally occur (termed aliens) can cause a broad range of significant changes to recipient ecosystems; however, their impacts vary greatly across species and the ecosystems into which they are introduced. There is therefore a critical need for a standardised method to evaluate,...

Université de Fribourg

Bottom-Up and top-down effects influence Bruchid beetle individual performance but not population densities in the field

Zaugg, Isabelle ; Benrey, Betty ; Bacher, Sven

In: PLoS ONE, 2013, vol. 8, no. 1, p. e55317

Plant quality (bottom-up) and natural enemies (top-down) can influence the individual performance of herbivorous insects on their host plants, but few studies measured at the same time the influence on population densities in the field. We investigated if plant quality of different wild common bean populations, Phaseolus vulgaris L. (Fabaceae), affects the performance of the bean weevil,...

Université de Fribourg

Species richness-environment relationships of european arthropods at two spatial grains: habitats and countries

Entling, Martin H. ; Schweiger, Oliver ; Bacher, Sven ; Espadaler, Xavier ; Hickler, Thomas ; Kumschick, Sabrina ; Woodcock, Ben A. ; Nentwig, Wolfgang

In: PLoS ONE, 2012, vol. 7, no. 9, p. e45875

We study how species richness of arthropods relates to theories concerning net primary productivity, ambient energy, water-energy dynamics and spatial environmental heterogeneity. We use two datasets of arthropod richness with similar spatial extents (Scandinavia to Mediterranean), but contrasting spatial grain (local habitat and country). Samples of ground-dwelling spiders, beetles, bugs and...

Université de Fribourg

Functional responses: a question of alternative prey and predator density

Tschanz, Britta ; Bersier, Louis-Félix ; Bacher, Sven

In: Ecology, 2007, vol. 88, no. 5, p. 1300–1308

Throughout the study of ecology, there has been a growing realization that indirect effects among species cause complexity in food webs. Understanding and predicting the behavior of ecosystems consequently depends on our ability to identify indirect effects and their mechanisms. The present study experimentally investigates indirect interactions arising between two prey species that share a...