| Institution: | 1. Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Restoration Ecology, Technische Universit?t München, , 85350 Freising‐Weihenstephan, Germany;2. Unit Ecology & Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, , Fribourg, Switzerland;3. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, , NW1 4RY London, United Kingdom;4. Distinguished Scientist Fellowship Program, King Saud University, , Riyadh, 1145 Saudi Arabia;5. Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, , BT9 7BL Northern Ireland, United Kingdom;6. Department of Conservation Biology, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology, University of Vienna, , 1030 Vienna, Austria;7. Silwood Park Campus, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, , Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY United Kingdom;8. Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, , Matieland, 7602 South Africa;9. The Bio‐Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, , PO Box 84 Christchurch, New Zealand;10. Department of Community Ecology, UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, , 06120 Halle, Germany;11. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐Leipzig, , 04103 Leipzig, Germany;12. Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin‐Luther‐University Halle‐Wittenberg, , Germany;13. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, , Czech Republic;14. Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, , CZ‐252 43 Pr?honice, Czech Republic;15. Environment Agency Austria, Department of Biodiversity and Nature Conservation, , 1090 Vienna, Austria;16. Redpath Museum, McGill University, , Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A0C4;17. Estación Biológica de Do?ana (EBD‐CSIC), Avda. Américo Vespucio, , 41092 Sevilla, Spain |
| Abstract: | Non‐native species cause changes in the ecosystems to which they are introduced. These changes, or some of them, are usually termed impacts; they can be manifold and potentially damaging to ecosystems and biodiversity. However, the impacts of most non‐native species are poorly understood, and a synthesis of available information is being hindered because authors often do not clearly define impact. We argue that explicitly defining the impact of non‐native species will promote progress toward a better understanding of the implications of changes to biodiversity and ecosystems caused by non‐native species; help disentangle which aspects of scientific debates about non‐native species are due to disparate definitions and which represent true scientific discord; and improve communication between scientists from different research disciplines and between scientists, managers, and policy makers. For these reasons and based on examples from the literature, we devised seven key questions that fall into 4 categories: directionality, classification and measurement, ecological or socio‐economic changes, and scale. These questions should help in formulating clear and practical definitions of impact to suit specific scientific, stakeholder, or legislative contexts. Definiendo el Impacto de las Especies No‐Nativas |
