Natural England Commissioned Report NECR009 Horizon scanning for new invasive non-native animal species in England First published 22 May 2009 www.naturalengland.org.uk Introduction Natural England commission a range of reports from external contractors to provide evidence and advice to assist us in delivering our duties. The views in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Natural England. Background Invasive non-native species (INNS) are For the purposes of this report non-native recognised as one of the main causes of global species refers to a species introduced by human biodiversity loss and current evidence action outside its natural past or present demonstrates that this is a problem which is distribution. An invasive non-native species is a increasing. Consequently there are a large non-native species whose introduction and or number of agreements, conventions, legislation spread threatens biodiversity. and strategies pertaining to INNS. It is important for Natural England: In May 2008 the GB Strategy for invasive non- native species was launched. One of the key To be informed of potential new invasive non- areas of work identified was the prevention and native species. rapid action for newly arriving, or newly invasive To understand the challenges that new non-native species. invasive non-native species may bring. To consider appropriate responses to such Recognising which species will become invasive species. is notoriously difficult. The best predictor is the invasiveness elsewhere. To assist in the The purpose of this report is to help Natural prioritisation and targeting of prevention work, England: Natural England sought a horizon scanning exercise to pick out non-native species that are As the lead delivery body for the England most likely to become invasive in England in the Biodiversity Strategy develop a view on future. potential new invasive non-native species in England and their impacts to biodiversity. The aim of the report was to produce a list of Implement its invasive non-native species potential new invasive non-native animal policy. species in England using existing information on INNS. These might be species which are Further contribute towards the implementation already here but aren’t established or species of the Invasive Non-native Species Framework which are yet to arrive. It is envisaged that such Strategy for Great Britain. a report will stimulate debate and help inform the targeting of resources. Natural England Project Managers - Ben McCarthy & Dr Ruth Waters, Natural England, Bullring House, Northgate, Wakefield WF1 3BJ Contractor - Dr Dave Parrott (Consortium Leader), Food & Environment Research Agency, Sand Hutton, York, YO41 1LZ in association with CEH, Cefas, Bournemouth University and Imperial College London Keywords - invasive non-native species, horizon scanning, new invasive species Further information This report can be downloaded from the Natural England website: www.naturalengland.org.uk. For information on Natural England publications contact the Natural England Enquiry Service on 0845 600 3078 or e-mail [email protected] You may reproduce as many individual copies of this report as you like, provided such copies stipulate that copyright remains with Natural England, 1 East Parade, Sheffield, S1 2ET ISSN 2040-5545 © Copyright Natural England 2009 HORIZON SCANNING FOR NEW INVASIVE NON-NATIVE ANIMAL SPECIES IN ENGLAND Natural England Contract No. SAE03-02-189 May 2009 Horizon scanning for new invasive non-native animal species in England Horizon scanning for new invasive non-native animal species in England HORIZON SCANNING FOR NEW INVASIVE NON-NATIVE ANIMAL SPECIES IN ENGLAND Natural England Contract No. SAE03-02-189 Dr. Dave Parrott, Dr. Sugoto Roy Wildlife Management & Ecology Group Dr. Richard Baker, Dr. Ray Cannon, Mr. Dominic Eyre Plant Health Group Central Science Laboratory Dr. Mark Hill, Dr Markus Wagner, Dr Chris Preston, Dr. Helen Roy & Mr. Björn Beckmann Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) Prof. Gordon H. Copp, Mr. Nathan Edmonds, Dr. Jim Ellis & Mr. Ian Laing Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) Dr. J. Robert Britton & Prof. Rodolphe E. Gozlan Bournemouth University Prof. John Mumford Imperial College London Horizon scanning for new invasive non-native animal species in England Horizon scanning for new invasive non-native animal species in England Contents Page 1. Executive Summary ................................................................................................... 1 2. Background ................................................................................................................ 4 3. Aims and objectives ................................................................................................... 5 4. Methodology .............................................................................................................. 5 4.1 Review of existing INNS information – species lists .......................................... 5 4.2 Assessment of species risk priority ...................................................................... 7 4.3 Species information sheets ................................................................................. 11 4.4 Risk assessment summary spreadsheet .............................................................. 12 5. Results and discussion ............................................................................................. 13 5.1 Species risk categorisation ................................................................................. 13 5.2 Mammals............................................................................................................ 13 5.3 Birds ................................................................................................................... 15 5.4 Amphibians and Reptiles ................................................................................... 17 5.5 Terrestrial invertebrates ..................................................................................... 19 5.6 Fish ..................................................................................................................... 21 5.7 Freshwater invertebrates .................................................................................... 24 5.8 Marine invertebrates .......................................................................................... 25 5.9 Species information sheets ................................................................................. 26 5.10 Summary spreadsheets ..................................................................................... 26 6. Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 26 7. Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 28 Appendix I: Species information sheets ...................................................................... 40 Appendix II: Risk assessment summary spreadsheets ............................................... 103 Horizon scanning for new invasive non-native animal species in England 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . This report identifies potential new invasive non-native animal species in England and assesses the relative risk posed by each species. The analysis was carried out to identify new and emerging threats, and so it does not consider non-native species that have already become invasive in England. Invasive non-native species constitute one of the leading threats to natural ecosystems and biodiversity, through consumption, resource competition, introduction of diseases, interbreeding and disturbance. The guiding principles adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) toward the management of invasive non-native species follows a hierarchical process: prevention, eradication, containment and control and mitigation; with an emphasis on preventive measures. Central to an approach of prevention and rapid, targeted action is the identification of those non-native species that are likely to become newly invasive in England; across all taxonomic groups this constitutes a significant number of species. A number of non-native risk assessment schemes are available but which are too detailed and labour-intensive for the rapid evaluation of large numbers of species. In this study, a relatively rapid screening process was used to produce a list of potential new invasive non-native species in England, and to assess their relative risks; covering terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. Potential new non-native species fall into two categories: (i) species already present in England but which are currently either not widely established or not acting invasively in the wild, (ii) species that have not entered the country yet but are reasonably likely to do so. A list of vertebrate and invertebrate species meeting one or other of these criteria was collated from a number of sources that included non-native species databases, reference literature and expert opinion. The prioritisation process used to evaluate the environmental risk of these species was adapted from an existing protocol developed by the Belgian Forum on Invasive Species; which assigns species to a list system designed as a two- dimensional ordination - environmental impact x invasion stage. Environmental impact was categorised as high, medium or low; invasion stage was categorised