ALIENS AND HUMANS: BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

The large-scale redistribution of species worldwide is a key fingerprint of the Anthropocene. Alien species and biological invasions bring many challenges for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. These challenges have consequences for the services (and disservices) that ecosystems provide to humans, and for the resulting benefits and nuisances that people perceive, value and manage.

This seminar in the context of the working group AliensWatch, will combine two talks from leading experts on the disciplinary fields of biological invasions and human-nature interactions, discussing biological invasions as a complex social-ecological phenomenon.

11h-11h30 | Trends and consequences of biological invasions in the Anthropocene 

Franz Essl, University of Vienna, Environment Agency Austria, and Stellenbosch University

11h30-12h | Factors underpinning perceptions towards invasive alien species 

Berta Martin-Lopez, IETSR - Institute of Ethics and Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany

12h-12h30 | Open discussion 

Invited moderator: Cristina Branquinho, CE3C - Centre for Ecology and Environmental Changes, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon

Professor Franz Essl is affiliated in the Division of Conservation Biology, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology at the University of Vienna, in Austria; the Department of Biodiversity and Nature Conservation at Environment Agency Austria, in Vienna; and the Centre for Invasion Biology in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University, in South Africa. His research interests focus on improving the understanding of global environmental change and its consequences for biodiversity and human society. He is one of the most prominent researchers in the field of biological invasions, with more than 100 scientific papers included in high-profile journals such as Nature and Science.

Professor Berta Martin-López is affiliated in the Institute of Ethics and Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research (IETSR), University of Leuphana, in Lüneburg, Germany. She is also member of the scientific committees of PECS - Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (http://www.pecs-science.org/) and ecoServices (http://www.futureearth.org/ecoservices/). Berta is one of the most recognised social-ecologists in the field of ecosystem services, with a high-profile publication set on understanding the dynamics of social-ecological systems as well as on analysing the flow of ecosystem services and supporting the governance system of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

[Hosts: Joana R. Vicente and João P. Honrado, Predicting and Managing Ecological Change]

[Image credits: Ana Sofia Vaz, ECOCHANGE]