Nuria Roura

University of Girona | UDG · Departament de Ciències Ambientals

Future dynamics of biological invasions are highly uncertain because they depend on multiple social–ecological drivers. We used a scenario‐based approach to explore potential management options for invasive species in Europe. During two workshops involving a multidisciplinary team of experts, we developed a management strategy arranged into 19 goal...

Invasive alien species are one of the major threats to global biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, nature's contributions to people and human health. While scenarios about potential future developments have been available for other global change drivers for quite some time, we largely lack an understanding of how biological invasions might unfold in...

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) envisions a world living in harmony with nature by 2050, with 23 intermediate targets to be achieved by 2030. However, aligning international policy and local implementation of effective actions can be challenging. Using steppe birds, one of the most threatened vertebrate groups in Europe,...

The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) has rapidly become a source of stress for the beekeeping sector. Several methods have been developed to control its impact and spread, though some of these impose a high risk for native insects. Among these methods are electric harps, which are physical barriers that electrocute hornets pass through two wires power...

Discoglossus pictus is a North African amphibian that was introduced in southern France early the 20th century and has spread south and north along the Mediterranean coastal plains up to 170 km. In order to disentangle the conservation implications of the spread of D. pictus for sensitive native species, we examined the impact of long‐term climate...

1. Invasive alien species are one of the major threats to global biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, natures contribution to people and human health. While scenarios about potential future developments have been available for other global change drivers for quite some time, we largely lack an understanding of how biological invasions might unfold in...

Future dynamics of biological invasions are highly uncertain because they depend on multiple environmental, societal and socio-economic drivers. We adopted a qualitative scenario approach to explore the future of invasive alien species (IAS) in Europe and created an overall strategy for their management that considers different plausible future dev...

Unlabelled: The extent and impacts of biological invasions on biodiversity are largely shaped by an array of socio-economic and environmental factors, which exhibit high variation among countries. Yet, a global analysis of how these factors vary across countries is currently lacking. Here, we investigate how five broad, country-specific socio-econ...

Species distribution models (SDMs) have been widely applied to predict geographic ranges of species across space and time under the assumption of niche conservatism (i.e., species niches change very slowly). However, an increasing number of studies have reported evidence of rapid niche changes across space and time, which has sparked a widespread d...

The Asian hornet ( Vespa velutina ) has rapidly become a source of stress for the beekeeping sector. Several methods have been developed to control its impact and spread, though some of these impose a high risk for native insects. Among these methods are electric harps, which are physical barriers that electrocute hornets passing through two wires...

Scenario analysis has emerged as a key tool to analyze complex and uncertain future socio-ecological developments. However, currently existing global scenarios (narratives of how the world may develop) have neglected biological invasions, a major threat to biodiversity and the economy. Here, we use a novel participatory process to develop a diverse...

The extent and impacts of biological invasions on biodiversity are largely shaped by an array of socio-ecological predictors, which exhibit high variation among countries. Yet a global synthetic perspective of how these factors vary across countries is currently lacking. Here, we investigate how a set of five socio-ecological predictors (Governance...

Scenario analysis has emerged as a key tool to analyze complex and uncertain future socio-ecological developments. However, current global scenarios (narratives of how the world may develop) have neglected biological invasions, a major threat to biodiversity and the economy. We used a novel participatory process to develop a diverse set of global b...

Biological invasions are a major threat to global biodiversity with particularly strong implications for island biodiversity. Much research has been dedicated towards understanding historic and current changes in alien species distribution and impacts on islands and potential changes under future climate change. However, projections of how alien sp...

Understanding the likely future impacts of biological invasions is crucial yet highly challenging given the multiple relevant environmental, socio‐economic and societal contexts and drivers. In the absence of quantitative models, methods based on expert knowledge are the best option for assessing future invasion trajectories. Here, we present an ex...

Aim This study aims to quantify the patterns in compositional turnover of native and exotic ants on small islands in two oceans, and to explore whether such patterns are driven by similar environmental, geographical and potentially biotic variables. Location Pacific and Atlantic islands. Time period Present. Major taxa studied Ants. Methods We...

Biological invasions have emerged as an eminent feature of global change, with substantial impacts on the environment and human livelihoods. Current research demonstrates that the numbers and impacts of alien species are rising unabatedly. At the same time, we lack a thorough understanding of potential future trajectories for the decades to come. W...

AlienScenarios, a three-year project starting in March 2019, will evaluate for the first time the range of plausible futures of biological invasions for the 21 st century. AlienScenarios consists of seven project partners and seven integrated complementary subprojects. We will develop the qualitative narratives for plausible futures of global alien...

Climate change, alteration of atmospheric composition, land abandonment in some areas and land use intensification in others, wildfires and biological invasions threaten forests, shrublands and pastures all over the world. However, the impacts of the combinations between global change factors are not well understood despite its pressing importance....

Aim To examine the relationship between island characteristics (area, distance to the nearest continent, climate and human population size) and ant species richness, as well as the factors underlying global geographical clustering of native and exotic ant composition on islands. Location One hundred and two islands from 20 island groups around the...

Human transportation facilitates the dispersal of exotic ants, but few studies have quantified the magnitude and geography of these movements. We used several non-parametric indices to estimate the number of species successfully introduced to or established in new regions. We also compared their source biogeographic realms to assess the importance...

Existen dos escenarios futuros de efectos del cambio climático sobre la biodiversidad de vertebrados: 1) Los ecosistemas se desplazan en conjunto en función del clima, y 2) Los ecosistemas se adaptan y cambian. El primero es poco realista debido a la tremenda y creciente fragmentación de hábitat en Europa y a la complejidad de las respuestas de las...

SOSTENIBILIDAD EN ESPAÑA 2011 327 l Observatorio de la Sostenibilidad de España (OSE) ha preparado el presente capítulo espe-cial sobre bosques, en el marco de su Informe Sostenibilidad en España 2011, con ocasión de la celebración del Año Internacional de los Bosques. La Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas acordó en 2006 celebrar en 2011 este impo...

Human transportation facilitates the dispersal of exotic ants, but few studies have quantified the magnitude and geography of these movements. We used several non-parametric indexes to estimate the number of species successfully introduced to or established in new regions. We also compared their source biogeographic realms to assess the importance...

Peer assessment provides students with multiple benefits during their learning process. The aim of our study is to examine students ’perception of peer assessment. Questionnaires were administered before and after the peer- assessment process to 416 students studying 11 different subjects in four different fields taught at the University of Girona....

We address criticism that the Transport, Establishment, Abundance, Spread, Impact (TEASI) framework does not facilitate objective mapping of risk assessment methods nor defines best practice. We explain why TEASI is appropriate for mapping, despite inherent challenges, and how TEASI offers considerations for best practices, rather than suggesting o...

Regardless of their ecosystem functions, some insects are threatened when facing environmental changes and disturbances, while others become extremely successful. It is crucial for successful conservation to differentiate factors supporting species' current distributions from those triggering range dynamics. Here, we studied the sudden extralimital...

Dispersal strategies are one of the most important determinants of range dynamics and a surrogate for invasiveness. We tested three inter-related hypotheses derived from demographic and ecological models: (H1) short-distance dispersal strategies arise at native range margins due to their demographic advantage; (H2) in non-native areas a high diffus...

Some alien species cause substantial impacts, yet most are innocuous. Given limited resources, forecasting risks from alien species will help prioritise management. Given that risk assessment (RA) approaches vary widely, a synthesis is timely to highlight best practices. We reviewed quantitative and scoring RAs, integrating > 300 publications into...

Endemic species play an important role in conservation ecology. However, knowledge of the real distribution and ecology is still scarce for many endemics. The aims of this study were to predict the distribution of the short-range endemic Alpine jumping bristletail Machilis pallida ; to evaluate the actual level of endemism via ground validation usi...

The study of the spatial patterns of species allows the examination of hypotheses on the most plausible ecological processes and factors determining their distribution. To investigate the determinants of parasite species on Mediterranean forests at regional scales, occurrence data of the European Misletoe (Viscum album) in Catalonia (NE Iberian Pen...

Dispersal strategies are one of the most important determinants of range dynamics and a surrogate for invasiveness. We tested three interrelated hypotheses derived from demographic and ecological models: (H 1) short-distance dispersal strategies arise at native range margins due to their demographic advantage; (H 2) in non-native areas a high diffu...

Because invasive species threaten the integrity of natural ecosystems, a major goal in ecology is to develop predictive models to determine which species may become widespread and where they may invade. Indeed, considerable progress has been made in understanding the factors that influence the local pattern of spread for specific invaders and the f...

Clearing of invasive alien plants (IAPs) is a necessary but expensive exercise. Typically, insufficient resources are available to clear all areas simultaneously. Consequently areas need to be prioritized for clearing. The financial resources available determine the extent of the area which can be cleared, while the prioritization identifies the lo...

Determining the potential range of invasive alien species under current conditions is important. However, we also need to consider future distributions under scenarios of climate change and different management interventions when formulating effective long-term intervention strategies. This paper combines niche modelling and fine-scale process-base...

Invasive species alter the functioning of natural ecosystems, creating “novel ecosystems” comprising species occurring in combinations with no analogs within a given biome. This poses major challenges for managers who cannot rely exclusively on previous experiences. Multiple factors that drive invasion and which interact in complex ways demand inno...

The increasing numbers of invasive species have stimulated the study of the underlying causes promoting the establishment and spread of exotic species. We tracked the spread of the highly invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) along an environmental and habitat gradient on the northeastern Iberian Peninsula to determine the role of climatic, h...

Aim Decision‐support models have considerable potential for guiding management strategies when problems are complex. The robustness of such decision‐making processes is rarely evaluated, and the influence of decision criteria (or factors) in management decisions is seldom considered. We present a framework for a spatially‐explicit sensitivity analy...

J. Hortal (j.hortal@imperial.ac.uk), NERC Centre for Population Biology, Div. of Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus,Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK. N. Roura-Pascual, A`rea de Biodiversitat, Centre Tecnolo`gic Forestal de Catalunya, Ctra. de St. Llorenc¸ deMorunys Km 2, ES-25280 Solsona, Catalonia, Spain. N. J. Sanders, Dept of Ecol...

The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (MAYR, 1868), originally from subtropical South America, is an important pest in many parts of the world. To evaluate its worldwide distribution and potential for further spread, we mapped records of L. humile from > 2100 sites. Because several South and Central American Linepithema species have been often mis-...

Determining the geographical range of invasive species is an important component of formulating effective management strategies. In the absence of detailed distributional data, species distribution models can provide estimates of an invasion range and increase our understanding of the ecological processes acting at various spatial scales. We used t...

To address the lack of physiological approaches in current models assessing the potential distribution of the Argentine ant, we used data on brood development from distinct sources to evaluate a series of degree-day models for Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula), and data on the brood survival and oviposition rates to develop a worker production model...

Invasive alien trees and shrubs pose significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services in South African fynbos ecosystems. An ambitious initiative, the Working for Water program, commenced in 1995 to reduce the extent and impact of plant invasions. Despite substantial progress, the problem remains immense, and innovative ways of improving...

Assessing climatic suitability provides a good preliminary estimate of the invasive potential of a species to inform risk assessment. We examined two approaches for bioclimatic modeling for 67 reptile and amphibian species introduced to California and Florida. First, we modeled the worldwide distribution of the biomes found in the introduced range...

Invasive species are known to influence the structure and function of invaded ecological communities, and preventive measures appear to be the most efficient means of controlling these effects. However, management of biological invasions requires use of adequate tools to understand and predict invasion patterns in recently introduced areas. The pre...

The study of successional gradients may help to understand the relative influence of habitat structure and competition on territory characteristics. Here, we evaluate the effects of vegetation cover, conspecific and heterospecific densities, and distance to the nearest neighbor on territory size, shape, and overlap in insectivorous birds. We studie...

Modeling ecological niches of species is a promising approach for predicting the geographic potential of invasive species in new environments. Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) rank among the most successful invasive species: native to South America, they have invaded broad areas worldwide. Despite their widespread success, little is known about...

In the mid-20th century, the southern parts of the Madres and Mont Coronat massif (Eastern Pyrenees, France) were characterized by a Mediterranean landscape shaped by human activity. Long-term use of these mountains for crops, livestock, and forestry led to an increase in grassland areas at the expense of forest. However, socioeconomic transformati...

Spain, possibly the EU’s richest country with regard to animal species, has the highest number of endemisms. The number of new species described every year indicates that a high percentage of the fauna remains unknown. Greater effort is required in our country with regard to taxonomic research. There exists much evidence of climatic effects on the...

Determining the spread and potential geographical distribution of invasive species is integral to making invasion biology a predictive science. We assembled a dataset of over 1000 occurrences of the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile), one of the world's worst invasive alien species. Native to central South America, Argentine ants are now found in m...

Species distribution models that predict the geographic ranges of invasive species have received a lot of attention re- cently. This approach can be very useful for determining the potential for additional spread in invaded areas and for identifying new regions that may be susceptible to invasion. With the increasing availability of scenarios of fu...