New web portal for invasive species information
Tom Marshall
Harlequin ladybirds getting you down? Stressed by slipper limpets? Need to know more about the spread of Japanese knotweed or signal crayfish? The DAISIE project website has just been relaunched, making it easier to get at free, reliable information about invasive species.
Standing for Delivering Alien Invasive Species Inventory for Europe, DAISIE gives a comprehensive overview of more than 12,000 alien invaders. This means it doesn't just cover familiar villains like grey squirrels and mink, but also lesser-known menaces.
For instance, the current holder of the hotly-contested 'invasive species of the week' title is the smallmouth bass, an unassuming-looking fish that lives naturally in the southern United States but is now wreaking ecological havoc in rivers in South Africa and elsewhere after being released in a misguided bid to improve sport fishing.
The revamp was announced at the NEOBIOTA conference in Spain, and sees more than 1000 new species added to the database as well as revised information on those that were already covered.
Invasive non-native species are one of the biggest threats to biodiversity all over the world, and have been identified as a priority at all policy levels, from local to international.
The project started in 2005 with EU funding, and is now supported by NERC's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the Swiss Sciex programme, together with a consortium of invasive species experts from all over Europe.
Posted on 13 September 2012
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