Invasive species in freshwater

To strengthen knowledge and maximise opportunities to manage invasive alien plants and animals, the Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment work on this from different perspectives.

Through environmental monitoring, we help to monitor the occurrence and distribution of invasive species throughout Sweden.

We also have staff who research the ecology of invasive species and the effects of invasions on aquatic ecosystems, and modelling the spread of potential of species.

Our competence, knowledge and experiences include: 

• Design of monitoring programs (e.g. of the flooding mosquito and invertebrates in Lake Mälaren).
• Modelling risk zones (e.g. for the zebra mussel). Used in risk assessment.
• Using DNA methods to investigate how species (e.g. seaweed) have spread.
   

The biological environmental monitoring of Swedish freshwater contains observations of alien species. These observations are recorded in our database and can be used to analyse the consequences of invasions and the potential for spread.

For more information about the species we have studied, please see the Swedish version of this web page.

Popular science publications

Invasiv art tar vattenvägen norrut (SLU Kunskapsbank)

När vi får oväntat besök (Hav & vatten, nr 1 2017)

Links

The European Network on Invasive Alien Species (NOBANIS)  

Havs- och vattenmyndighetens information om invasiva arter

Above, we describe the work on invasive species at the Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment. There is also considerable expertise on invasive species in other parts of SLU. Here are a few examples:

• Artdatabanken
• SLU Centrum för biologisk mångfald, CBM
• institutionen för akvatiska resurser
• institutionen för landskapsarkitektur, planering och förvaltning
• institutionen för skoglig mykologi och växtpatologi
• institutionen för växtskyddsbiologi