European Commission
EASIN - European Alien Species Information Network

EASIN News

The first Earth Day in 1970 is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, and it is now recognized as one of the planet’s largest civic events

EASIN activity on social media (SM) has been focused since its inception in 2012 on delivering scientific contents on alien species in Europe and native biodiversity protection

The LIFE ARTEMIS project aims to contribute to the reduction of the harmful impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) on biodiversity by increasing public awareness and by setting up an efficient early warning and rapid response (EWRR) system to manage their impacts on forests in Slovenia.

New Data Partners have joined the network, contributing to updating the knowledge on alien species recorded in Europe, and to the enrichment of the EASIN spatial data, which are made available to users via webservices.

Online version 7.2 of the EASIN catalogue includes experts' revision of 3675 species occurring in Europe, including terrestrial arthropods, nematodes and other invertebrates.

Biological control can represent a viable option in certain contexts to combat invasive alien species. Despite of successful experiences, especially in plant protection against insects, concerns arise due to the potential risk posed by the introduced agents to the environment, particularly when imported from other continents.

We warmly welcome to EASIN Team Celia López Cañizares, who has recently joined JRC as a trainee, and will be working on Citizen Science, science and outreach communication.

The implementation of EU Regulation 1143/2014 on Invasive Alien Species has seen the fruitful collaboration between the Commission and Member States Competent Authorities in the preparation of a Baseline distribution of the 37 Invasive Alien Species (IAS) of Union concern (published in the Commission Implementing Reg. 1141/2016).

Keeping information on alien species occurring in Europe up-to-date is the EASIN main goal, which is being sought by establishing collaboration with scientific organisations and data repositories at European and global level.

In an effort to connect the citizen science community across Europe and engage the public with citizen science initiatives on alien and invasive alien species, we are glad to announce that a new EASIN Citizen Science Webpage is on-line.

Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) is a fast-growing and strong clump-forming perennial plant native to East Asia in Japan, China and Korea, introduced in Europe as ornamental and forage plant during the early 19th century.

In few weeks, pests' populations will be on the rise, ravaging several plants. Among those, the invasive Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica), a 1cm long insect, native to Japan, spotted for the first time in Europe in July 2014 close to the river Ticino, in Northern Italy.

RELIONMED is a four year project, funded by the EU LIFE instrument, aiming to set the basis for the mitigation of lionfish impacts through the development of an early warning and response system and the development of best practices for its control.

The latest version of the EASIN Catalogue, 7.0, contains the result of the revision of scientific information on Mammals, Reptiles and Amphibia, marine plankton, and terrestrial Platyhelminthes (flatworms) performed by the taxonomists Riccardo Scalera, Lyudmila Kamburska, and Jean-Lou Justine.

We warmly welcome to EASIN Team Ioannis Giovos, marine biologist with a background on conservation of Mediterranean endangered marine megafauna species.

All the scientific information contained in the EASIN Catalogue concerning species taxonomy, synonyms, common names, status (alien, cryptogenic, questionable), environment, impact and pathways of introduction in Europe can be downloaded through to the recently released EASIN RESTful Web Service.

EASIN Catalogue version 6.6 has been released. Information on alien freshwater fish, freshwater plants, Fungi and Oomycota occurring in Europe has been revised by taxonomy specialists and updated. This work has led to the addition of new species and changes to the status of others.

This is the title of a two-years Citizen Science Project promoted by the University of Palermo (Sicily), to collect data on 19 alien marine species, both plant and animals, along the coasts of Sicily and small Islands.

A large-scale study on 34 Mediterranean marinas (Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus) revealed that Mediterranean marinas indeed act as major hubs for the transfer of marine alien species, indicating that recreational boats act as effective vectors of spread. Numerous new alien species records at the basin, subregional, country and locality level are also reported.

A special issue of "Journal of Aquatic Invasions" includes studies presented at three international meetings devoted to invasive species in inland water ecosystems held in 2016 in Europe and North America

Information on freshwater alien molluscs in Europe has been revised and updated in the EASIN Catalogue (version 6.1), including first year and country of introduction in Europe, native range, synonyms, common names, pathways, and new entries.

EASIN is establishing collaborations with scientific organizations working on biodiversity and alien species, aiming at enriching the quality of scientific information and spatial data retrievable via its information system.

It is peak season for alien species, also known as non-native species to Europe, whether highly invasive or not. Plants and shrubs are blooming, animals and insects are buzzing around. Take the chance to spot them near your living place, in parks and natural areas, to help protecting biodiversity.

Biological invasions have become one of the main drivers of habitat degradation and biodiversity loss in island ecosystems worldwide, which are hot spots of biodiversity and contain rare habitats and endemic species. Small islands are particularly vulnerable to the threat of invasive species.

Blue biotechnology is concerned with the exploration and exploitation of marine resources in order to develop new products with economic value, get new sources of energy, extract new active ingredients for pharmaceutical and industrial purposes or increase food supply.

Many fish species undertake more or less extended migrations as part of their basic behaviour. Amongst the best known examples in Europe are salmon (Salmo salar), sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) and eel (Anguilla anguilla), which are diadromous species with their life cycle taking place partly in fresh water and partly in sea water, often swimming several thousands of kilometers to reach their spawning grounds.

EPPO has enriched its sets of standards by means of publishing new or revised standards in the December issue of the EPPO Bulletin (follow the links to the Wiley-Blackwell website).

The Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 of the European Parliament of the Council of 26 October 2016 on protective measures against pests of plants was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 2016-11-23.

The tropical green seaweed Halimeda incrassata (Bryopsidales, Chlorophyta) is reported for the first time from the Mediterranean Sea. Plants were observed at 2 sites off Mallorca island (NW Mediterranean), and species identification was confirmed molecularly.

We are glad to inform that the Marine Mediterranean Invasive Alien Species Database (MAMIAS) and the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre (NBIC) have joined the EASIN network of data partners. Their spatial data are available through specific filters in the EASIN mapping tool.

A recent published article describes the results obtained by using trained dogs in searching for scent of the Asian longhorn beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky.A recent published article (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/epp.12282/full) describes the results obtained by using trained dogs in searching for scent of the Asian longhorn beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky.

The invasive lionfish, Pterois miles, has recently increased in abundance and within a year colonized almost the entire south eastern coast of Cyprus, posing a threat to marine ecosystems, according to a recent published study:

The solitary ascidian Microcosmus exasperatus (Class: Ascidiacea, Family: Pyuridae) is reported for the first time from Cyprus, found forming aggregations on ropes in a marina and on the hull of a ship; both molecular and morphological diagnostics are provided.

About 130 European scientists and managers gathered at the European workshop on Control and Eradication of Invasive Alien Plant Species, organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Hungary in Budapest from 19-21 April 2016, to share experiences regarding the control of invasive alien plants.

A Species Alert has been issued for Crayfish plague in Ireland by the Irish National Biodiversity Data Centre. A press release was issued by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

The EASIN Catalogue version 4.0 has been released. This major update regards information on the vast group of terrestrial alien plants in Europe with a low impact. Their valid names, synonyms, taxonomy, status and environment have been revised and updated.

The user can select to include or not the native range (in Europe) of species that are partly native (i.e. native in some parts of Europe but alien in some other parts).

A fourth way to visualize alien species distributions is now possible through the EASIN mapping tools.

The major update of EASIN includes: 'Show Species' functionality, Time Slider, HCMR-EEA is a new Data Partner

EASIN-Lit is a new EASIN product, providing data on species distribution (georeferenced records and distribution ranges) from the literature.

In the information provided for each species (by clicking on the green button next to the name of the species in the results of the search widgets) we have now added links to existing factsheets.

The team of the European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN), from the Joint Research Centre (JRC), organised a meeting at Hotel Europa, Ispra, Italy, on 6-7 December 2012.