Wolfgang Rabitsch

Umweltbundesamt, Austria · Biodiversity and Nature Conservation

Invasive ants are among the alien species causing the greatest ecological, economic and health damage. The European Union has added four ant species to their list of alien species of Union concern in 2022, based on legislation in force since 2015. This Regulation constitutes a significant progress, but we believe that several actions are still ne...

Bräu, M., Dorow, W.H.O., Achtziger, R., Aukema, B., Brandner, J., Frieß, T., Göricke, P., Goßner, M., Hartung, V., Heckmann, R., Hoffmann, H.-J., König, M., Münch, M., Puzoń, S., Rabitsch, W., Raupach, M., Simon, H., Voigt, K., & Winkelmann, H. (2024): Exkursions-ergebnisse des 49. Treffens der Arbeitsgemeinschaft mitteleuropäischer Heteropterologe...

This brief report summarises information on terrestrial invasive alien plant species (IAPS) in the EU having a negative impact on pollinators, with a focus on the non-chemical methods that can be used to manage them. A limited systematic literature search revealed 52 publications on IAPS affecting pollinators since 2000 and highlighted 35 relevant...

(English abstract below) Einheimische Gehölzarten spielen eine herausragende Rolle für die Erhaltung der einheimischen Insektenfauna. Von 8.127 geprüften, weitest gehend phytophagen (pflanzenfressenden), in Deutschland vorkommenden Blattkäfern, Prachtkäfern, Rüsselkäfern, Pflanzenwespen, Schmet terlingen, Wanzen, Wildbienen und Zikaden sind 3.140 A...

(English abstract below) Einheimische Gehölzarten spielen eine herausragende Rolle für die Erhaltung der einheimischen Insektenfauna. Von 8.127 geprüften, weitest gehend phytophagen (pflanzenfressenden), in Deutschland vorkommenden Blattkäfern, Prachtkäfern, Rüsselkäfern, Pflanzenwespen, Schmet terlingen, Wanzen, Wildbienen und Zikaden sind 3.140 A...

The current checklist of true bugs (Heteroptera) in Austria includes 924 species. This red list of true bugs in Austria, which was created for the first time, is based on approximately 135,000 data sets. The classification into Red List categories was performed using the threat indicators habitat availability and habitat trend. Of the 924 species o...

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...

The Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) is an important tool for biological invasion policy and management and has been adopted as an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) standard to measure the severity of environmental impacts caused by organisms living outside their native ranges. EICAT has already been in...

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...

Heteroptera records collected on the occasion of the 47th meeting of the “Working Group of Central European Heteropterologists” in the province of Bolzano/Bozen, South Tyrol, Italy, are reported. A total of 242 species were observed during the three official field days. Including the findings of the individual excursions of single participants a to...

The present report covers all taxonomic groups of terrestrial insects excluding Coleoptera (Beetle) und Sternorrhyncha (Plant aphids). In total, 454 alien species (Neobiota) are listed which have been recorded in Germany so far. Most alien species (336) do not yet occur permanently in the wild. Only 118 species are established. Assessments revealed...

Alien insects represent one of the most species rich groups of organisms introduced to Europe, with some responsible for adverse social-economic, human-health, biodiversity and ecosystem impacts. The impacts of invasive alien species, especially on island ecosystems, have been a hot topic of research worldwide. Cy-prus is a Mediterranean island at...

Invasive non‐native species (INNS) are recognized as a major threat to island biodiversity, ecosystems, and economies globally. Preventing high‐risk INNS from being introduced is the most cost‐effective way to avoid their adverse impacts. We applied a horizon scanning approach to identify potentially INNS in the United Kingdom Overseas Territories...

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...

Es wird für Deutschland die erste konsequent kriterienbasierte Bewertung der naturschutzfachlichen Invasivität von gebietsfremden terrestrischen Wirbellosen Arten (alle Gruppen außer Insekten) vorgelegt. Zusätzlich werden kommentierte Gesamtartenlisten aller in Deutschland wild lebend nachgewiesenen gebietsfremden terrestrischen Arten (Archäozoa un...

Increasing evidence—synthesized in this paper—shows that economic growth contributes to biodiversity loss via greater resource consumption and higher emissions. Nonetheless, a review of international biodiversity and sustainability policies shows that the majority advocate economic growth. Since improvements in resource use efficiency have so far n...

A total of 173 species is documented, including Phytocoris intricatus Flor, 1861 and Saldula palustris (Douglas, 1874), which are first records for Carinthia. In addition, 124 species were recorded the first time for the National Park and 39 species of a red list category in the Red List of Carinthia are documented. The true bug fauna of the study...

Current collections and determinations of material and photos show that the true bug fauna research of Austria is far from complete. Three species are new to the Austrian fauna: Hesperocorixa castanea (Thomson, 1869), Isometopus mirificus (Mulsant & Rey, 1879), Nabis capsiformis Germar, 1838. First observations are reported for all provinces: Carin...

Based on distribution data from reporting under the IAS regulation and the Habitats Directive, the report investigates where invasive alien plant species and habitats important for pollinators coincide. The preliminary results provide some insight into possible risks for pollinators and the pollinating service at a coarse scale. ------ https://ww...

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...

Es wird für Deutschland die erste konsequent kriterienbasierte Bewertung der naturschutzfachlichen Invasivität von gebietsfremden terrestrischen Arten aus den Gruppen der I. Moose, Flechten und II. Pilze vorgelegt. Zusätzlich werden kommentierte Gesamtartenlisten aller in Deutschland wild lebend nachgewiesenen gebietsfremden terrestrischen Moose, F...

Ecological significance of neobiota in Germany: mosses, lichens and fungi

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...

Extreme abiotic conditions, geographic isolation, and low levels of disturbance have historically provided alpine, Arctic, and Antarctic regions with low input of and relative resistance to the introduction of new species. However, the climate is warming rapidly, concomitant with intense and diversified types of human influence in these cold enviro...

Invasive alien species (IAS) are known to be a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function and there is increasing evidence of their impacts on human health and economies globally. We undertook horizon scanning using expert-elicitation to predict arrivals of IAS that could have adverse human health or economic impacts on the island of Cypru...

Insekten sind die artenreichste Tiergruppe auf der Erde. Es ist derzeit rund eine Million Arten bekannt, das entspricht mehr als 60 % aller Tierarten. Sie sind formen- und farbenreich, haben eine Vielzahl an Ernährungs- und Verhaltensweisen hervorgebracht und sind für den Menschen von großer Bedeutung. Das sogenannte „Insektensterben“, ein dramatis...

The number of alien species arriving within new regions has increased at unprecedented rates. Managing the pathways through which alien species arrive and spread is important to reduce the threat of biological invasions. Harmonising information on pathways across individual sectors and user groups is therefore critical to underpin policy and action...

Managing the impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) is a great societal challenge. A wide variety of terms have been used to describe the management of invasive alien species and the sequence in which they might be applied. This variety and lack of consistency creates uncertainty in the presentation and description of management in policy, science...

Prioritising the management of invasive alien species (IAS) is of global importance and within Europe integral to the EU IAS regulation. To prioritise management effectively the risks posed by IAS need to be assessed, but so too does the feasibility of their management. While the risk of IAS to the EU has been assessed, the feasibility of managemen...

The coypu ( Myocastor coypus ) is a semi-aquatic rodent native to South America which has become invasive in Europe and other parts of the world. Although recently listed as species of European Union concern in the EU Invasive Alien Species Regulation, an analysis of the current European occurrence and of its potential current and future distributi...

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...

Climate-driven range dynamics of species will interact with land use patterns that have reduced and fragmented habitat types needed for species’ survival. This interaction could either amplify or mitigate the threats to species from climate change, but has so far been little explored. Here, we investigate whether shifts of suitable areas under futu...

Increasing evidence—synthesized in this paper—shows that economic growth contributes to biodiversity loss via greater resource consumption and higher emissions. Nonetheless, a review of international biodiversity and sustainability policies shows that the majority advocate economic growth. Since improvements in resource use efficiency have so far n...

This document aims to answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) on how the EU Invasive Alien Species Regulation (IAS Regulation) can support the implementation of the EU Habitats and Birds Directives (the Nature Directives) and vice versa. The document is aimed at the competent authorities responsible for implementing the IAS Regulation, and the com...

The Antarctic is considered to be a pristine environment relative to other regions of the Earth, but it is increasingly vulnerable to invasions by marine, freshwater and terrestrial non-native species. The Antarctic Peninsula region (APR), which encompasses the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands and South Orkney Islands, is by far the most...

Evidence-based assessments of the risks posed by invasive alien species (IAS) are critical to underpin policies and prioritise action. Over the last three years, a template for producing structured risk assessments has been developed and tested for thirty selected species spanning various taxonomic groups across marine, terrestrial and freshwater e...

For many species, human-induced environmental changes are important indirect drivers of range expansion into new regions. We argue that it is important to distinguish the range dynamics of such species from those that occur without, or with less clear, involvement of human-induced environmental changes. We elucidate the salient features of the rapi...

Invasive alien vertebrates represent ongoing threats to global biodiversity through a variety of impact mechanisms. Measures to counteract invasive alien species (IAS) such as trade restrictions, border controls, rapid response or control rely heavily on listings of high impact IAS. To provide a sound evidence base to such listings is key to effect...

Disturbances have frequently been shown to increase the invasibility of plant communities. Harvesting, the most common and severe type of anthropogenic disturbance in forests, creates pulses of enhanced resource availability for alien plants and for native colonizers. However, it is unclear for how long initial changes in species composition of the...

Standardized tools are needed to identify and prioritize the most harmful non-native species (NNS). A plethora of assessment protocols have been developed to evaluate the current and potential impacts of non-native species, but consistency among them has received limited attention. To estimate the consistency across impact assessment protocols, 89...

The fifth insect camp of the Entomological Society of Austria (ESA) was conducted from April 27 to May 2, 2018. Many of the 39 participants were recognized experts on different arthropod groups. Fifty-seven localities within and nearby the Donau-Auen National Park were investigated, and a total of 1265 invertebrate species identified: 8 Collembola,...

Executive summary 1. The threat posed by escalating numbers of INNS to biodiversity, human health and the economy is a major concern for the UK Overseas Territories (OTs). Indeed it is estimated that there are at least 2,261 non-native species occurring across the OTs (Bermuda has the highest documented occurrences with 1,139 species recorded and t...

The European Union (EU) has recently published its first list of invasive alien species (IAS) of EU concern to which current legislation must apply. The list comprises species known to pose great threats to biodiversity and needs to be maintained and updated. Horizon scanning is seen as critical to identify the most threatening potential IAS that d...

This paper summarises the results regarding aquatic invertebrates of a few excursions to the Vjosa in Albania, in the vicinity of the villages Poçem und Kutë. It mainly aims to document the status of one of the last free-flowing rivers in Europe, based on its aquatic communities prior to the realisation of the planned building of hydropower plants....

No saturation in the introduction, acceleration of spread and the increasing impacts of alien species are a characteristic feature of the Anthropocene. Concomitantly, alien species affecting human health are supposed to increase, mainly due to increasing global trade and climate change. In this study, we assess challenges and solutions posed by suc...

There is mounting evidence that climate change will facilitate biological invasions. Regarding alien species relevant for human health, climate change can modify their impacts by altering the likelihood of their introduction, establishment, distribution and abundance, the scale of impacts and management. In this chapter, we summarize climate change...

The Austrian biodiversity monitoring in agricultural areas “ÖBM Kulturlandschaft has a focus on habitat and species diversity in cultural (open) landscapes, including alpine pastures. The central goal is to determine the present status and trends of Austrian biodiversity of cultural landscapes.

We present 180 species of true bugs (Insecta: Heteroptera) from the biogeographic regions „Oberes Weserbergland“, „Westhessisches Berg- und Senkenland“ and „Osthessisches Bergland”. All records have been obtained in August 2017 within the framework of the 43rd meeting of the “Working group of the Central European Heteropterists” held in Hofgeismar...

Nach Artikel 13 Abs. 1 der EU-VO muss jeder Mitgliedstaat bis Anfang 2018 eine Untersuchung und Priorisierung der nicht vorsätzlichen Pfade der Einbringung und Ausbreitung der Arten der Unionsliste für sein Hoheitsgebiet vorlegen. Als Priorisierungskriterien werden in der EU-VO das Artenvolumen oder der potenzielle Schaden vorgeschlagen. In der vor...

Terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems are connected via multiple biophysical and ecological processes. Identifying and quantifying links among ecosystems is necessary for the uptake of integrated conservation actions across realms. Such actions are particularly important for species using habitats in more than one realm during their daily...

Human activities such as the transport of species to new regions and modifications of the environment are increasingly reshaping the distribution of biota. Accordingly, developing robust, repeatable, and consistent definitions of alien species that serve scientific and policy purposes has become of prime importance. We provide a set of classificati...

Biological invasions threaten biodiversity in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, requiring substantial conservation and management efforts. To examine how the conservation planning literature addresses biological invasions and if planning in the marine environment could benefit from experiences in the freshwater and terrestrial systems,...

Zur Umsetzung der Verordnung (EU) Nr. 1143/2014 ist es notwendig, die wichtigsten Pfade der nicht vorsätzlichen Einbringung und Ausbreitung der Arten auf der so genannten „Unionsliste“ für Deutschland zu identifizieren. Auf Grundlage des standardisierten Pfad-Klassifikationsschemas des Übereinkommens über die biologische Vielfalt (CBD) wurden im vo...

Everything you wanted to know about Nezara viridula (Heteroptera)

Significance Our ability to predict the identity of future invasive alien species is largely based upon knowledge of prior invasion history. Emerging alien species—those never before encountered as aliens—therefore pose a significant challenge to biosecurity interventions worldwide. Using a global database of the first regional records of alien spe...

1. Many alien taxa are known to cause socio-economic impacts by affecting the different constituents of human well-being (security; material and non-material assets; health; social, spiritual and cultural relations; freedom of choice and action). Attempts to quantify socio-economic impacts in monetary terms are unlikely to provide a useful basis fo...

Background Alien species are frequently considered a serious environmental threat but negative impacts on human health through injury, allergy, or as vectors of disease sometimes have the most dire consequences for human livelihoods. Climate change and the increasing magnitude and frequency of introductions of species across geographic barriers as...

True Bugs recorded during the 42nd meeting of “Arbeitsgruppe Mitteleuropäischer Heteropterologen” at Zwieseler Winkel, Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald (19.–21. 8.2016) – with remarks on cicadas, beetles and ants. In total, 130 Heteroptera species were recorded during the conference, including pre- and post-conference excursions; 115 of these within...

Rapid climatic changes and increasing human influence at high elevations around the world will have profound impacts on mountain biodiversity. However, forecasts from statistical models (e.g. species distribution models) rarely consider that plant community changes could substantially lag behind climatic changes, hindering our ability to make tempo...

Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation represents a major obstacle to species shifting their range in response to climate change. Conservation measures to increase the (meta-)population capacity and permeability of landscapes may help but the effectiveness of such measures in a warming climate has rarely been evaluated. Here, we simulate range dynamic...

Effective prevention and control of invasive species generally relies on a comprehensive, coherent and representative list of species that enables resources to be used optimally. European Union (EU) Regulation 1143/2014 on invasive alien species (IAS) aims to control or eradicate priority species, and to manage pathways to prevent the introduction...

Biological invasions are a threat to biodiversity, society and the economy. There is an urgent need to provide evidence‐based assessments of the risks posed by invasive alien species ( IAS ) to prioritize action. Risk assessments underpin IAS policies in many ways: informing legislation; providing justification of restrictions in trade or consumer...