Howard Hall

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INVASIVE SPECIES PROJECT
Conabio, Mexico
Especies Invasoras
Howard Hall
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Principal Aims

• Systematize the existing information concerning
  invasive species (plants, fishes, amphibians,
  reptiles and mammals) for terrestrial and marine
  environments.
• Obtain species checklists defining priority
  species to finance specific ecological studies.
• Determine invasive species geographical
  distribution, real and potential.
• Discuss strategies to control and erradicate
  these species with the responsible Ministries
  (SEMARNAT and SAGARPA).

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At present, CONABIO is financing projects to
obtain information concerning invasive species of

• vascular plants (weeds),
• birds,
• mammals,
• amphibians and reptiles

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Institutionality in Mexico

• Responsibility of the Ministery of Agriculture.
• Conabio is an advisor, mainly on likely routes of
  invasion.
• Other involved Environment, customs, treasury,
  states, NGOs,...

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Invasive plants
Checklist of 877 species of invasive plants in
Mexico (Villaseñor, Rzedowski y Espinosa 1999).
Dicotyledonae 70
Monocotyledonae 30
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Invasive plants

• Introduced weeds in Mexico The project will
  generate a database of 419 species (including
  3,350 records of plant specimens from 300
  localities). This will include information from
  13 herbaria (Espinosa, F. in process).

• Exotic plants of Central Mexico Images and
  database of 600 species (including 1,000 records
  of specimens from150 localities (D.F., Puebla,
  Tlaxcala, Querétaro,Veracruz and Edo. México)
  (Vibrans-Linderman, H. in process).

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Invasive Vertebrates
Exotic vertebrates of Mexico Diversity and
potential effects. Database for 105 vertebrate
species including a descriptive technical
information of each species (Medellín, R., in
process).
Mammals 46
Birds 46

Reptiles 4
Amphibians 4
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Information requirements

• Species Databases
• More than 10 localities each
• Geographically referred localities
• Digital cartography
• Country maps (Mexico and source countries)
• Maps of the physical, biotic, and social
  environments, regionalizations
• Bioclimatic models (GARP, FloraMap)
• GIS ArcView
• Bibliography
• Experts network

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Report of an Invasive (Usually Agriculture)
Databases (Geographically referred localities)
Bioclimatic Modeling
Report
Species Databases
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Examples of specific cases
Fulvio Eccardi
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Some examples...

• Cactoblastis cactorum
• Ceratitis capitata
• Bombus terrestris
• Glycaspis brimblecombei
• Miconia tuerckheimii

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Methods

• 42 species of Opuntia were analyzed.
• 35 databases of the National Biodiversity
  Information System (SNIB-CONABIO), as well as
  other databases provided by the herbaria MEXU,
  ENCB, CAS and SD, were analyzed jointly.
• The maps of ecological similarity were generated
  with GARP and the limits generated by the program
  were analyzed subsequently with ecoregional maps
  and biogeographical ones, to avoid outliers
  surfaces. These results were also discussed
  with experts.
• The maps for the analyzed Opuntia species were
  overlapped to generate a new map of the potential
  distributional pattern of the Opuntias according
  to species richness (Opuntias hot spots).

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Conclusions

• The backbone of the Invasive Species project in
  Mexico is the SNIB, which is a specimen-based
  information system.
• Specimen-based information allow the prediction
  of the likely routes of invasion.
• Access to catalogues of names (ITIS, Species
  2000), specimen databases (REMIB, Species
  Analyst) and information on species already
  identified as invasives (Aphis, SNIB, literature,
  images, ...) provides us with tools to deal with
  the problem.
• The growth of such bioinformatics infrastructure
  should be a global concern

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The specimen data the backbone of the NBIS
Taxonomic reference
Geographic reference
Marco Pineda
Dirso, 1992.
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Information included in the NBIS

• 731 financed projects
• 417 databases that include information on
  5395,955 specimens (2785,907 curatorial records
  i.e. data validated according to CONABIOs
  standards)
• Repatriation of information of 752,905 specimens
  (corresponding to 650,502 curatorial records)
• 3,498 satellite images (MSS, TM, ETM, DMSP,
  AVHRR)
• 120 digital maps and more than one thousand
  printed maps of variable scales
• 178 books published and 19 electronic publications

actualización diciembre 2000