scholarly journals An Updated Checklist of The Alien Flora In a Mediterranean Region of Europe: The Case of Calabria (Southern Italy)

Author(s):  
Giovanni Spampinato ◽  
Valentina Lucia Astrid Laface ◽  
Giandomenico Posillipo ◽  
Ana Cano Ortiz ◽  
Ricardo Quinto Canas ◽  
...  

Abstract An updated checklist of the Calabrian alien vascular flora is presented. The alien flora of the Calabria region (Southern Italy) representing almost 12% of the regional flora and comprises 381 alien taxa, among which there are 370 angiosperms, 9 gymnosperms and 2 ferns. In relation to the state of spread, 35 invasive alien species (IAS) have been identified (4 of these are included in the list of Union Concern, sensu Regulation (EU) no. 1143/2014) which represent 9% of the Calabrian alien flora.In the last years the alien flora in Calabria has increased: in particular, alien species have increased over a decade from 190 to the current 381 taxa. If on the one hand this is due to new introductions, resulting from the globalization that relentlessly affects the whole planet, on the other hand it is to be linked to awareness of the problem of alien species and the increasing intensity of research in recent decades. This study would provide a baseline for further advanced studies on the management of invasive species and on the invasion ecology.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Cuthbert ◽  
Christophe Diagne ◽  
Phillip J. Haubrock ◽  
Anna J Turbelin ◽  
Franck Courchamp

Abstract Biological invasions are increasing worldwide, damaging ecosystems and socioeconomic sectors. Two decades ago, the “100 of the world’s worst” invasive alien species list was established by the IUCN to improve communications, identifying particularly damaging ‘flagship’ invaders globally (hereafter, worst ). Whilst this list has bolstered invader awareness, whether worst species are especially economically damaging and how they compare to other invaders (hereafter, other ) remain unknown. Here, we quantify invasion costs using the most comprehensive global database compiling them (InvaCost). We compare these costs between worst and other species against sectorial, taxonomic and regional descriptors, and examine temporal cost trends. Only 60 of the 100 worst species had invasion costs considered as highly reliable and actually observed estimates (median: US$ 43 million). On average, these costs were significantly higher than the 463 other invasive species recorded in InvaCost (median: US$ 0.53 million), although some other species had higher costs than most worst species. Damages to the environment from the worst species dominated, whereas other species largely impacted agriculture. Disproportionately highest worst species costs were incurred in North America, whilst costs were more evenly distributed for other species; animal invasions were always costliest. Proportional management expenditures were low for the other species, and surprisingly, over twice as low for the worst species. Temporally, costs increased more for the worst than other taxa; however, management spending has remained very low for both groups. Nonetheless, since 40 species had no robust and/or reported costs, the “true” cost of “some of the world’s worst ” 100 invasive species still remains unknown.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e24749
Author(s):  
Quentin Groom ◽  
Tim Adriaens ◽  
Damiano Oldoni ◽  
Lien Reyserhove ◽  
Diederik Strubbe ◽  
...  

Reducing the damage caused by invasive species requires a community approach informed by rapidly mobilized data. Even if local stakeholders work together, invasive species do not respect borders, and national, continental and global policies are required. Yet, in general, data on invasive species are slow to be mobilized, often of insufficient quality for their intended application and distributed among many stakeholders and their organizations, including scientists, land managers, and citizen scientists. The Belgian situation is typical. We struggle with the fragmentation of data sources and restrictions to data mobility. Nevertheless, there is a common view that the issue of invasive alien species needs to be addressed. In 2017 we launched the Tracking Invasive Alien Species (TrIAS) project, which envisages a future where alien species data are rapidly mobilized, the spread of exotic species is regularly monitored, and potential impacts and risks are rapidly evaluated in support of policy decisions (Vanderhoeven et al. 2017). TrIAS is building a seamless, data-driven workflow, from raw data to policy support documentation. TrIAS brings together 21 different stakeholder organizations that covering all organisms in the terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. These organizations also include those involved in citizen science, research and wildlife management. TrIAS is an Open Science project and all the software, data and documentation are being shared openly (Groom et al. 2018). This means that the workflow can be reused as a whole or in part, either after the project or in different countries. We hope to prove that rapid data workflows are not only an indispensable tool in the control of invasive species, but also for integrating and motivating the citizens and organizations involved.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stelios Katsanevakis ◽  
Konstantinos Tsirintanis ◽  
Maria Sini ◽  
Vasilis Gerovasileiou ◽  
Nikoletta Koukourouvli

ALAS aims to fill knowledge gaps on the impacts of marine alien species in the Aegean Sea, and support marine managers and policy makers in prioritizing mitigation actions. The project will focus on under-studied alien-native interactions, priority and vulnerable habitats (such as shallow forests of canopy algae and underwater caves), and apply a multitude of approaches. It will apply a standardized, quantitative method for mapping Cumulative IMpacts of invasive Alien species on marine ecosystems (CIMPAL), according to which cumulative impact scores are estimated on the basis of the distributions of invasive species and ecosystems, and both the reported magnitude of ecological impacts and the strength of such evidence. Towards that direction, ALAS will improve our knowledge base and compile the needed information to estimate CIMPAL by (1) conducting a series of field experiments and surveys to investigate the impacts of selected invasive alien species on marine habitats, (2) producing high-resolution habitat maps in the coastal zone, refining the results of previous research efforts through fieldwork, remote sensing and satellite imaging, (3) producing species distribution models for all invasive species, based on extensive underwater surveys for the collection of new data and integrating all existing information. ALAS will incorporate skills and analyses in novel ways and provide high-resolution results at a large scale; couple classic and novel tools and follow a trans-disciplinary approach, combining knowledge from the fields of invasion biology, conservation biology, biogeography, fisheries science, marine ecology, remote sensing, statistical modelling; conduct for the first time in the Aegean Sea a comprehensive, high-resolution analysis of cumulative impacts of invasive alien species; and report results in formats appropriate for decision-makers and society, thus transferring research-based knowledge to inform and influence policy decisions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Leroy ◽  
Andrew M Kramer ◽  
Anne-Charlotte Vaissière ◽  
Franck Courchamp ◽  
Christophe Diagne

Aim: Large-scale datasets are becoming increasingly available for macroecological research from different disciplines. However, learning their specific extraction and analytical requirements can become prohibitively time-consuming for researchers. We argue that this issue can be tackled with the provision of methodological frameworks published in open-source software. We illustrate this solution with the invacost R package, an open-source software designed to query and analyse the global database on reported economic costs of invasive alien species, InvaCost. Innovations: First, the invacost package provides updates of this dynamic database directly in the analytical environment R. Second, it helps understand the nature of economic cost data for invasive species, their harmonisation process, and the inherent biases associated with such data. Third, it readily provides complementary methods to query and analyse the costs of invasive species at the global scale, all the while accounting for econometric statistical issues. Main conclusions: This tool will be useful for scientists working on invasive alien species, by (i) facilitating access and use to this multi-disciplinary data resource and (ii) providing a standard procedure which will facilitate reproducibility and comparability of studies, one of the major critics of this topic until now. We discuss how the development of this R package was designed as an enforcement of general recommendations for transparency, reproducibility and comparability of science in the era of big data in ecology.


Author(s):  
Francesco Crifò

AbstractGreek-speaking people have been sailing the Mediterranean for millennia. At various stages of their development from Latin, the Romance languages have been influenced by their idiom. In Italy and in its islands, this role has been particularly evident due to the many rich and culturally active colonies in Southern Italy before and during the Roman period on the one hand, and through the later Byzantine occupation, which lasted several centuries in some areas, on the other. In this article, after a brief summary of the historical background (2.), the characteristics of the lexical borrowings from Greek in the local idioms of Southern (3.) as well as of Central and Northern Italy (4.) will be sketched. Here and there, and in the conclusions (5.), the status quaestionis and the latest orientations of the research will also be broadly outlined.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 382 (2) ◽  
pp. 204
Author(s):  
JEN-YU WANG ◽  
JENN-CHE WANG

Invasive plants had raised lots of concern about the environment and biodiversity. Many members of Asteraceae are notorious invasive alien species across the world. In Taiwan, Emilia (Asteraceae) contains one native and two naturalized species. Recently, we found some morphologically intermediate individuals between the native E. sonchifolia var. javanica and the alien E. praetermissa from northern Taiwan where the latter two grow sympatrically. Based on morphological comparisons, pollen viability and flow cytometry information, we confirmed the fact of natural hybridization. Herein, we describe a new hybrid Emilia ×latens J.-Y Wang & J.-C. Wang and provide a key to Emilia species in Taiwan.


2009 ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Stefania Pontrandolfo

- The paper presents some reflections about the historical anthropology of a Southern Italy rom community, rooted since many centuries in the region Basilicata, in the little town of Melfi. These families sedentarization process can be considered as the result of special Italian state policies and of different institutional practices. The paper shows on the one hand the policies adopted at a central level and their implementation at a local level, and on the other the strategies with whom the rom faced them. Finally, the comparison between Italian different regional contexts offers a deeper understanding about these processes.


<em>Abstract.</em>—In Japan, natural populations of three snakeheads have been established: Northern Snakehead <em>Channa argus</em>, Blotched Snakehead <em>C. maculata</em>, and Small Snakehead <em>C. asiatica</em>. Historical literature indicates that <em>C. argus </em>was brought into Japan during the period of national isolation in the early modern period. After the nation’s closure period, the former two species were introduced before World War II for food resources, whereas the last was found in Japan after the war. <em>Channa argus </em>was cultured in irrigation ponds in some prefectures, but ecological invasiveness was a concern because of their predatory nature and nonindigenous origins. When new national legislation controlling invasive alien species began in 2005, three snakeheads appeared on the list of alien species requiring special attention. However, there is little evidence suggesting ecological invasiveness of snakeheads in Japan in recent years. The most recent national list of invasive species in 2016 included no snakeheads. In some water bodies, <em>C. argus </em>is actively used as the ecological agent to control other invasive alien species.


Author(s):  
Светлана Александровна Сиднева

Карнавал Салентийской Греции (il Carnevale della Grecìa Salentina) в коммуне Мартиньяно является примером традиции этноязыковых меньшинств Южной Италии, сознательно восстановленной с учетом довольно архаичных и специфичных для традиционной культуры черт. С одной стороны, событие имеет типичную для европейских календарных праздников, точнее, городских карнавалов, структуру и включает такие мероприятия, как представления с масками, парады повозок с аллегорическими фигурами, сожжение или разрывание масленичного чучела, символизирующего уходящий период года. С другой стороны, в зависимости от социально-политической номенклатуры ритуалы обретают дополнительные смыслы, новые функции, празднества обогащаются воссозданными или новоустановленными ритуалами. Источниками работы стали личные наблюдения и опросы во время праздника в феврале 2013 г., материалы официального сайта салентийского карнавала и из архивов Культурно-туристического парка им. Дж. Пальмьери в Мартиньяно, итальянские СМИ, итальянские туристические сайты, работы итальянских, греческих и русских исследователей. Основные цели исследования: показать степень присутствия «греческих» элементов в карнавале Мартиньяно и механизмы, которые используют организаторы мероприятия для придания ему «греческой идентичности»; определить место карнавала в культурно-экономической политике Италии, описать особенности идентичности греков Саленто. The Carnival of the Greeks of Salento (il Carnevale della Grecìa Salentina) in the commune of Martignano is an example of a revived tradition among the ethnolinguistic minorities of southern Italy that also takes into account archaic and traditional cultural features. On the one hand, the event has a typical structure for European calendar holidays and urban carnivals. It includes such carnival ritual constants as performances with masks, processions of carts with allegorical figures, and the burning or tearing of a Carnival effigy symbolizing the declining season. On the other hand, depending on the socio-political nomenclature, rituals acquire additional meanings and new functions, and the festivities are enriched with recreated or newly established rituals. The article’s main objectives are to reveal the degree of presence of Greek elements in the Martignano Carnival and the mechanisms that the organizers of the event use to refer to its Greek identity; to determine the role of the carnival in the cultural and economic policy of Italy; and to analyze the identity of the Greeks of Salento. It is based on the author’s personal observations during the holiday in February 2013; materials from the official website of the Salentine Carnival and from the archives of the Parco Turisctico e Culturale Palmieri in Martignano; Italian media; Italian tourist sites; and works by Italian, Greek and Russian scholars.


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