Ulrike Irlich

Fisheries and Oceans Canada | DFO

Background: The South African National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (No. 10 of 2004) (NEM:BA) requires all Organs of State at all spheres of government to develop invasive species monitoring, control and eradication plans. Municipalities across South Africa are required to comply with the Alien and Invasive Species Regulations under N...

The horticultural industry is recognised as a major pathway for the introduction and spread of invasive alien plants (IAPs). The Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act (CARA) of 1983 (Act No. 43 of 1983) listed and categorised invasive species with an aim to curb their spread. The more recently enacted Alien and Invasive Species Regulations und...

South Africa has a long history of human-mediated introductions of species from all major taxonomic groups. Close to 9000 alien terrestrial plant species have been introduced, and all of the country's biomes have already been invaded. Invasive species are threatening the country's ecosystems in numerous ways, but the effect of climate change on the...

Much of the recent discussion concerning the form and underlying mechanistic basis of metabolic rate-temperature and development rate-temperature relationships has been precipitated by the development of the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE). Empirical tests of the theory's fundamental equation are an essential component of establishing its validit...

Historical as well as current species distribution data are needed to track changes in biodiversity. Species distribution data are found in a variety of sources, each of which has its own distinct bias toward certain taxa, time periods or places. We present GalliForm, a database that comprises 186687 galliform occurrence records linked to 118907 lo...

Alien plant invasions in urban areas can have considerable impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). Managing urban plant invasions is particularly challenging given the complex interactions between ecological, economic and social elements that exist in the urban milieu. Strategic landscape-scale insights are crucial for guiding managemen...

The original version of the article unfortunately contained an error with the figure captions. The appropriate captions for Fig. 3-6 are published accordingly. The original article has been corrected.

Background: Predicting which alien species may become invasive is important in prioritising scarce resources for management. Objectives: Sixteen naturalised ornamentals in Cape Town were assessed for invasion potential in relation to a mechanistic framework. The recently spreading species, Centranthus ruber (L.) DC., was studied in detail followin...

Plant species that receive significant human introduction effort and assistance generally are the most problematic invaders. Despite this, invasive ornamental species in urban settings have received relatively little attention if not invading natural areas. Here we consider Centranthus ruber in an urban setting in South Africa as a case study and e...

Globalisation has resulted in the movement of organisms outside their natural range, often with negative ecological and economic consequences. As cities are hubs of anthropogenic activities, with both highly transformed and disturbed environments, these areas are often the first point of entry for alien species. We compiled a global database of cit...

Aims Tests of the energy hypothesis for the large‐scale distribution of species richness have largely been concerned with the influence of two alternative forms of environmental energy, temperature and energy from primary productivity, both of which (at least in terrestrial systems) peak within the tropics. Taxa showing extra‐tropical diversity pea...

Much of the recent discussion concerning the form and underlying mechanistic basis of metabolic rate–temperature and development rate–temperature relationships has been precipitated by the development of the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE). Empirical tests of the theory’s fundamental equation are an essential component of establishing its validit...