Towards alien plant prioritization in Italy: methodological issues and first results

Abstract

In recent decades, multiple actions have been taken to counteract the relentless expansion of invasive alien species as well as to gain a better understanding of their effects on ecosystems. Here, we describe the approach designed by the Italian Botanical Society that is aimed at selecting a list of candidate alien plants to be subjected to a prioritization procedure. We selected a total of 96 species on the basis of data related to their occurrence on both a national and regional scale, their invasiveness and their potential to invade plant communities and/or habitats of community concern. This list represents the first result obtained by applying this standardized workflow and is a first step towards the identification of those alien species that should be included in the national list according to Regulation (EU) n. 1143/2014.

Keywords:

• Non-native flora
• national list of alien species
• EU regulation on IAS
• habitats
• impacts
• prioritization

Acknowledgements

We gratefully thank Piero Genovesi and Lucilla Carnevali of the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) for supporting and promoting this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

All authors were involved in conceiving the idea and designing methodology. Specifically, R. Bolpagni and L. Lazzaro led the development and writing of the manuscript, performing the database inspection and the species selection; E. Barni, G. Brundu, L. Celesti-Grapow and C. Siniscalco contributed critically to the draft; C. Blasi fostered the project. L. Celesti-Grapow coordinated the work on the species lists on behalf of SBI. All authors gave final approval for publication.

Additional information

Funding

This work was carried out in the frame of the Project “Technical scientific support service for the elaboration of the IV national report pursuant to art. 17 for the terrestrial and inland species and habitats protected by Directive 92/43 EEC – Lot 1 Plant Species and habitats – CIG 742593074A” funded by ISPRA.

This work was carried out in the frame of the Project “Technical scientific support service for the elaboration of the IV national report pursuant to art. 17 for the terrestrial and inland species and habitats protected by Directive 92/43 EEC – Lot 1 Plant Species and habitats – CIG 742593074A” funded by ISPRA.