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Impacts of alien species on human health have recently become a major issue in medical research and invasion ecology, but comprehensive assessments of this subject are largely lacking. Here, we provide a literature review of alien species with public health impacts in Europe based on a systematic search in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science. We detected 77 relevant articles, of which 21 were reviews and 56 were original research articles. The taxonomic focus was on vascular plants (n=31 articles) and dipterans (n=25 articles). The original research articles mainly covered the spread of the study species, while early invasion stages (introduction, establishment) as well as impact and management were less investigated. Alien species of health concern in Europe are mostly introduced as contaminants, and mostly originate from climatically similar regions of the Northern Hemisphere. In those cases (36% of all articles) when information on the trend in range and abundance was provided, this trend was mostly increasing. We detected little information on the severity of the impacts (two articles) and the interaction with climate change (three articles). In 15 original articles (28%) specific management measures were suggested, in only one article the socioeconomic costs were assessed. We conclude that European research on human health impacts of alien species is biased towards few species, and that several important aspects such as early invasion stages, severity of impact and its temporal trends, and the scale of the socioeconomic costs caused are poorly understood. Interdisciplinary projects bridging gaps between ecologists medical researchers, socioeconomists and public health authorities are required to link alien species to severity and trends of impacts, which is a crucial requisite for risk assessment and decision making.
This study investigated laypersons’ perception of invasive alien plant species (IAPS) and attitudes towards their management with the help of a written questionnaire in the cities of Zurich, Geneva, and Lugano, Switzerland. Survey participants (n = 720) judged attractiveness from certain species on visual contact (eight IAPS were shown as photographs). Trachycarpus fortunei and Ludwigia grandiflora were liked most, while Ambrosia artemisiifolia was clearly disliked most. With the exception of Trachycarpus fortunei, all plant species were perceived as rather ordinary, familiar and native to Switzerland, and feelings of ordinariness, familiarity and nativeness were positively correlated. Few participants could correctly identify the species depicted. Knowledge of an IAPS (ability to identify it) and desire to have it around were negatively correlated. Participants agreed most with the eradication of IAPS that cause serious costs and problems. However, people were rather unwilling to remove Buddleja davidii, Solidago canadensis, and Trachycarpus fortunei which are already widely established ornamentals in settlement areas or gardens. Overall, willingness to remove an IAPS and to report it to the authorities decreased with increasing desirability (and thus beauty) of a species.
As legislation, research and management of invasive alien species (IAS) are not fully coordinated across countries or different stakeholder groups, one approach leading to more or less standardized activities is based on producing lists of prominent IAS that attain high level of concern and are a subject of priority monitoring and management. These so-called Black, Grey and Watch (alert) Lists represent a convenient starting point for setting priorities in prevention, early warning and management systems. It is important that these lists be based on transparent and robust criteria so as to accommodate interests and perception of impacts by groups of concerned authorities and stakeholders representing sectors as diverse as, e.g. forestry, horticulture, aquaculture, hunting, and nature conservation, and to justify possible trade restrictions. The principles for blacklisting need to be general enough to accommodate differences among taxonomic groups (plants, invertebrates, vertebrates) and invaded environments (e.g. aquatic, terrestrial, urban, suburban, seminatural), and must take into account invasion dynamics, the impact the IAS pose, and management strategies suitable for each particular invader. With these assumptions in mind, we synthesize available information to present Black, Grey and Watch Lists of alien species for the Czech Republic, with recommended categorized management measures for land managers, policy makers and other stakeholders. We took into account differences in the listed species’ distribution, invasion status, known or estimated environmental impact, as well as possible management options, and apply these criteria to both plants and animals. Species with lower impact, but for which some level of management and regulation is desirable, are included on the Grey List. Some potentially dangerous species occurring in European countries with comparable climatic conditions, as well as those introduced in the past but without presently known wild populations in the Czech Republic, are listed on the Watch list. In total, there are 78 plant and 39 animal species on the Black List, 47 and 16 on the Grey List, and 25 and 27, respectively, on the Watch List. The multilayered approach to the classification of alien species, combining their impacts, population status and relevant management, can serve as a model for other countries that are in process of developing their Black Lists.
Antithrombotic management of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) undergoing coronary stenting is complicated by the need for anticoagulant therapy for stroke prevention and dual antiplatelet therapy for prevention of stent thrombosis and coronary events. Triple antithrombotic therapy, typically comprising warfarin, aspirin, and clopidogrel, is associated with a high risk of bleeding. A modest-sized trial of oral anticoagulation with warfarin and clopidogrel without aspirin showed improvements in both bleeding and thrombotic events compared with triple therapy, but large trials are lacking. The RE-DUAL PCI trial (NCT 02164864) is a phase 3b, a strategy of prospective, randomized, open-label, blinded-endpoint trial. The main objective is to evaluate dual antithrombotic therapy with dabigatran etexilate (110 or 150 mg twice daily) and a P2Y12 inhibtor (either clopidogrel or ticagrelor) compared with triple antithrombotic therapy with warfarin, a P2Y12 inhibtor (either clopidogrel or ticagrelor, and low-dose aspirin (for 1 or 3 months, depending on stent type) in nonvalvular AF patients who have undergone percutaneous coronary intervention with stenting. The primary endpoint is time to first International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis major bleeding event or clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding event. Secondary endpoints are the composite of all cause death or thrombotic events (myocardial infarction, or stroke/systemic embolism) and unplanned revascularization; death or thrombotic events; individual outcome events; death, myocardial infarction, or stroke; and unplanned revascularization. A hierarchical procedure for multiple testing will be used. The plan is to randomize ∼ 2500 patients at approximately 550 centers worldwide to try to identify new treatment strategies for this patient population.
This is a summary of Elena Abella Pérez's doctoral thesis "Factores ambientales y de manejo que afectan al desarrollo embrionario de la tortuga marina Caretta caretta. Implicaciones en programas de incubación controlada", Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC) and Departamento de Biología, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 29 October 2010.
Prioritisation of high-impact species is becoming increasingly important for management of introduced species (‘neobiota’) because of their growing number of which, however, only a small fraction has substantial impacts. Impact scores for prioritising species may be affected by the type of effect model used. Recent studies have shown that environmental co-variation and non-linearity may be significant for effect models of biological invasions. Here, we test for differences in impact scores between simple and complex effect models of three invasive plant species (Heracleum mantegazzianum, Lupinus polyphyllus, Rosa rugosa). We investigated the effects of cover percentages of the invasive plants on species richness of invaded communities using both simple linear effect models (‘basic models’) and more complex linear or nonlinear models including environmental co-factors (‘full models’). Then, we calculated impact scores for each invasive species as the average reduction of species richness predicted by basic and full effect models. All three non-native species had negative effects on species richness, but the full effect models also indicated significant influence of habitat types. Heracleum mantegazzianum had uniform linear effects in all habitats, while effects of L. polyphyllus interacted strongly with habitat type, and R. rugosa showed a marked non-linear relationship. Impact scores were overestimated by basic effect models for H. mantegazzianum and R. rugosa due to disregard of habitat effects and non-linearity, respectively. In contrast, impact of L. polyphyllus was underestimated by the basic model that did not account for the strong interaction of invader cover and habitat type. We conclude that simple linear models will often yield inaccurate impact scores of non-native species. Hence, effect models should consider environmental co-variation and, if necessary, non-linearity of the effects of biological invasions on native ecosystems.
Les résultats de 227 relevés phytosociologiques selon l’approche phytosociologique effectuées au Parc Urbain Bangr-Wéoogo de Braun-Blanquet (1932) montrent que malgré son contexte de forte pression anthropique avec plus d´un million d’habitants aux alentours, cette forêt urbaine conserve encore de nos jours une diversité floristique appréciable avec 327 espèces inventoriées comprenant 117 espèces ligneuses et 210 espèces herbacées. Cette flore qui est répartie dans 11 groupements individualisés grâce aux espèces différentielles, est constituée essentiellement de phanérophytes et de thérophytes. La répartition phytogéographique des espèces montre leur appartenance à plusieurs empires phytogéographiques dominés par les espèces Soudano-Zambeziennes et Pantropicales. La richesse floristique du parc qui contraste avec son environnement, est le résultat d’une politique d’aménagement et de conservation efficace de la biodiversité initiée par l'État et ses partenaires depuis 1936. Mots clés: Flore, conservation, aménagement, spectre biologique, Parc Urbain, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, groupements végétaux
In the face of increasing invasions and limited resources, appropriate management of invasive species requires prioritisation of species for management action. This process often relies on knowledge of species specific impacts. However, as studies explicitly measuring impact of marine alien species are rare, prioritisation of management actions is often based on studies from outside the geographic area of interest. Further, few impact studies account for context dependency (e.g. seasonal variability or distinct environmental regimes), raising the question of how transferrable knowledge about the impact of a species is between invaded ranges. This study addressed this question by using the widespread invasive solitary ascidian Ciona robusta as a case study for assessing impacts across two invaded regions: South Africa and California, USA. We replicated a previously conducted experiment from California that showed that C. robusta depresses local species richness in San Francisco Bay. Our South African experiment showed no effect of C. robusta on species richness, the Shannon-Weiner diversity index or community composition, despite experiments being carried out over two years and at two depths. While these results may reflect strong density dependency in the impact of C. robusta, they serve to highlight context dependency in invasive species impacts. This suggests that until studies of impact in marine systems become common place, context dependency should be explicitly addressed as a source of uncertainty during the prioritisation of species for management action.
Recent critics of invasion biology advocate reduced efforts against nonnative species, arguing that attempts to manage invasions are often costly and futile and that managers are indiscriminately managing species regardless of their impact. Whether this criticism has affected ground-level operations is unknown. A survey of land stewards of a major conservation NGO reveals that this plea has not been heeded; in fact, managers report that they would increase nonnative species management if more resources were available. While respondents overwhelmingly listed nonnative, invasive species as their highest priority for management, we found little evidence supporting the criticism that practitioners focus on nonnative species with minimal ecological impact. Additionally, we found that more conservation practitioners reported managing problematic "weedy" native species over nonnative species that are not invasive. Our results indicate that these managers are selective rather than profligate, targeting species that are having a demonstrable impact or are likely to do so. They feel hamstrung by resource shortages despite their rigorous target selection. Why the increasing literature calling for changed treatment of nonnatives has not led to changed operations is uncertain. Possible reasons are that the critics are not prescriptive or unified about management prioritization, or that these managers simply reject the proposed new paradigm.
Family members provide most of the patient care and administer most of the treatments to patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Family caregivers have an important impact on clinical outcomes, such as quality of life (QoL). As a consequence of this service, family caregivers suffer high rates of psychological and physical illness as well as social and financial burdens. Hence, it is important to involve family caregivers in multimodal treatment settings and provide interventions that are both suitable and specifically tailored to their needs. In recent years, several clinical guidelines have been presented worldwide for evidence-based treatment of AD and other forms of dementia. Most of these guidelines have considered family advice as integral to the optimal clinical management of AD. This article reviews current and internationally relevant guidelines with emphasis on recommendations concerning family advice.