The freshwater Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit (FISK) has been applied in 35 risk assessment areas in 45 countries across the six inhabited continents (11 applications using FISK v1; 25 using FISK v2). The present study aimed: to assess the breadth of FISK applications and the confidence (certainty) levels associated with the decision-support tool's 49 questions and its ability to distinguish between taxa of low-to-medium and high risk of becoming invasive, and thus provide climate-specific, generalised, calibrated thresholds for risk level categorisation; and to identify the most potentially invasive freshwater fish species on a global level. The 1973 risk assessments were carried out by 70 ? experts on 372 taxa (47 of
ABSTRACT. The environmental and socioeconomic interactions between distant regions of the world ("telecoupling") are dramatically increasing. Telecoupling brings about new challenges and opportunities to biodiversity conservation that are of a larger magnitude and of a faster pace than ever observed before. Our understanding of the dynamics and leverage points of this telecoupled world is however limited. It is thus important to take stock of what we know and what we still need to know to formulate effective biodiversity conservation policies with telecoupling increasing. We identify the challenges and opportunities for biodiversity conservation brought about by the world's telecoupling in international trade and information by new technologies. Challenges are presented by the high demands for agricultural and wildlife products by high-income and emerging economies, putting pressure on land protection, management and incentive-based conservation interventions. Opportunities are brought about by the strength of telecoupled information flows that can generate strong pressure on multinationals and governments to adopt sustainable practices. Examples of these opportunities are zero-deforestation pledges and the increase in the number of certification schemes in key agricultural commodities. Conservation practitioners need to adopt a global perspective on telecoupling and focus on the new conservation opportunities represented by shaping the social norms of affluent consumers in emerging and high-income economies.
Biological invasions have created detrimental impacts in freshwater ecosystems. As non-native freshwater species include economically beneficial, but also harmful, species, trait-based risk assessments can be used to identify and prevent the import of potentially invasive species. Freshwater fishes are one of the most evaluated freshwater taxa to date. However, such assessments have mostly been done in sub-temperate to temperate regions, with a general lack of such research in the tropics. In view of this knowledge gap, this study aims to determine if a different set of traits are associated with successful establishment of non-native fishes within the tropics. In tropical Southeast Asia, Singapore represents a suitable model site to perform an invasive species trait-based risk assessment for the tropical region given its susceptibility to the introduction and establishment of non-native freshwater fishes and lack of stringent fish import regulation. A quantitative trait-based risk assessment was performed using random forest to determine the relative importance of species attributes associated with the successful establishment of introduced freshwater fishes in Singapore. Species having a match in climate, prior invasion success, lower absolute fecundity, higher trophic level, and involvement in the aquarium trade were found to have higher establishment likelihood (as opposed to native distributional range and maximum size being among the commonly identified predictors in subtropical/temperate trait-based risk assessments). To minimize invasive risk, incoming freshwater fishes could be screened in future for such traits, allowing lists of prohibited or regulated species to be updated. The findings could also potentially benefit the development of invasive species action plans and inform management decisions in the Southeast Asian region. Considering a geographical bias in terms of having relatively less documentation of biological invasions in the tropics, particularly Asia, this study highlights the need to perform more of such risk assessments in other parts of the tropics.
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