Developing scenarios for the management of biological invasions at the European level

Most research related to biological invasions is dominated by studies from the field of invasion ecology, although there is growing interest in developing more problem-oriented research, where synergies and links are formed between multiple disciplines to guide policy-development.

AlienScenarios has been a three-years international project financed by the joint Belmont Forum-BiodivERsA framework on biodiversity scenarios starting in April 2019. It consisted of seven project partners and seven integrated complementary subprojects. Our objective was to develop continental (Europe) scenarios and models of biological invasions based on a new interdisciplinary approach that provided guidelines for best practices. We developed qualitative scenarios for biological invasions at the EU level using scenario planning analyses, and then used these future scenarios to develop a management strategy that takes into account future uncertainties.

More information at: https://alien-scenarios.org/

Further reading: Essl et al. 2019. Introducing AlienScenarios: a project to develop scenarios and models of biological invasions for the 21 st century. NeoBiota 45: 1-17.

Research team

  • Carla Garcia Lozano (Universitat de Girona)
  • Emma Cebrian (Universitat de Girona, CEAB)

Collaborators

  • Cristian Pérez-Granados (Universitat d’Alacant)
  • Chunlong Liu (Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, IGB, Germany)

Project partners

  • Franz Essl (University of Vienna)
  • Hanno Seebens (Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre)
  • Ingolf Kühn (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ)
  • Brian Leung (McGill University)
  • Franck Courchamp (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique & University Paris Saclay)
  • Jonathan Jeschke (Freie Universität Berlin & IGB)

Funded by

AlienScenarios Project PCI2018-092966, FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación – Agencia Estatal de Investigación