Standard Operating Procedures: How to prepare an “Ecological Risk Screening Summary” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service September 2016 Updated February 2020 A-1 SOP for Ecological Risk Screening Summaries USFWS, February 2020 Important Notes Regarding This Document This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is intended to explain the purpose of the Ecological Risk Screening Summary (ERSS) and provide rigorous, repeatable steps necessary to obtain and synthesize the species data to complete an ERSS. Several important points regarding this document must be clearly noted: • The ERSS SOP is intended for use by people with a background in the taxa or species being assessed or (at the least) a background in biology, ecology, or invasive species and that have been trained in preparing ERSSs. It was originally titled ‘Standard Operating Procedures for the Rapid Screening of Species’ Risk of Establishment and Impact in the United States’. • The ERSS process is designed to be useful for terrestrial and freshwater animal and plant taxa. The process is not currently applicable to exclusively marine species as current climate matching tools were not developed with consideration of marine environments and climate variables. See Appendix F for how to address estuarine species or species where only a portion of their lifecycle is in marine environments. The process has not been tested on pathogens. • The draft version of the ERSS SOP underwent peer review without constraint on taxonomic groups to which the process could be applied. The process for the peer review followed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) procedures, and the Office of Management and Budget’s criteria of peer review for influential scientific information. Five independent expert reviewers, with expertise in invasive species biology, invasive species risk assessment, decision-support modeling, aquatic species biology, aquaculture, and fisheries, participated in the peer review process. Peer reviews were conducted individually, all comments were considered, and the process was revised where necessary. All peer review comments and the Service’s response to those comments are available to the public on the Service’s website (www.fws.gov/science/peer_review_agenda.html). • As part of the peer review, several reviewers commented on the need for a separate background and justification document for the ERSS process. That document will be available in the future online at the Service’s Fish and Aquatic Conservation website (https://www.fws.gov/fisheries/ANS/prevention.html). The document describes the history of the ERSS development and provides justification for the use of climate matching and history of invasiveness as a basis for preventative risk assessment. It is a companion to this SOP and is titled “Background and Justification for Ecological Risk Screening Summaries.” i SOP for Ecological Risk Screening Summaries USFWS, February 2020 • All examples and technical directions are given with reference to Microsoft Office 2016, Google Chrome, and ArcGIS Desktop 10.6 software. Earlier or later versions may have different functionality. Mention of commercial products does not necessarily entail endorsement by the U.S. Federal Government. Table of Contents Important Notes Regarding This Document ................................................................................................ i Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... ii PART 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 1 Background ................................................................................................................................................ 1 Purpose ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 How the ERSS Process Works .................................................................................................................. 2 Link to the FISRAM .................................................................................................................................. 2 Using the ERSS Reports ............................................................................................................................ 3 PART 2: GUIDELINES FOR CONDUCTING AN ECOLOGICAL RISK SCREENING SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................................... 5 Assessor Qualifications .............................................................................................................................. 5 Development Process ................................................................................................................................. 5 Data Quality Standards .............................................................................................................................. 6 How Much is Enough? .............................................................................................................................. 6 General Notes ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Creating an Administrative Record............................................................................................................ 9 PART 3: STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES FOR ECOLOGICAL RISK SCREENING SUMMARIES .............................................................................................................................................. 10 General Guidelines .................................................................................................................................. 10 3A: ERSS Title Page Header Information ............................................................................................... 10 3B: ERSS Section 1 - Native Range and Status in the United States ...................................................... 14 3C: ERSS Section 2 - Biology and Ecology ............................................................................................ 16 3D: ERSS Section 3 - Impacts of Introductions....................................................................................... 19 3E: ERSS Section 4 – History of Invasiveness ........................................................................................ 20 3F: ERSS Section 5 - Global Distribution ............................................................................................... 24 3G: ERSS Section 6 - Distribution Within the United States .................................................................. 27 3H: ERSS Section 7 - Climate Matching ................................................................................................. 28 3I: ERSS Section 8 - Certainty of Assessment ........................................................................................ 33 3J: ERSS Section 9 - Risk Assessment .................................................................................................... 36 ii SOP for Ecological Risk Screening Summaries USFWS, February 2020 3K: ERSS Sections 10 and 11 – Literature Cited .................................................................................... 39 PART 4: FINAL NOTE .............................................................................................................................. 41 PART 5: LITERATURE CITED ............................................................................................................... 42 PART 6: APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................. 44 Appendix A: Data Sources.................................................................................................................... A-1 Appendix B: Record of Online Data Searches and ERSS QA/QC Checklist ........................................ B-1 Appendix C: Examples of Standard Formatting for References ............................................................ C-1 Appendix D: Detecting Outlier Data Points.......................................................................................... D-1 Appendix E: RAMP SOP and Climatch User Manual ........................................................................... E-1 Appendix F: ERSS Writing for Species Not Restricted to Freshwater .................................................. F-1 Appendix G: Climate Supplements....................................................................................................... G-1 Appendix H: Derivation of Climate Match Categories ......................................................................... H-1 Appendix I: A Template for Completing Ecological Risk Screening Summaries .................................. I-1 Appendix J: Example of a Completed Ecological Risk Screening Summary ......................................... J-1 iii SOP for Ecological Risk Screening Summaries USFWS, February 2020 PART 1: INTRODUCTION Background Each year, thousands of nonnative species and millions of individual organisms are imported into the United States and moved among States. Although only a small fraction of these organisms escape from intended uses and ultimately cause harm to society and the environment,