{"id":4623,"date":"2021-11-15T10:35:15","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T08:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/?p=4623"},"modified":"2021-12-05T13:25:52","modified_gmt":"2021-12-05T11:25:52","slug":"impacts-of-alien-acacias-assessed-in-a-standardised-framework","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/impacts-of-alien-acacias-assessed-in-a-standardised-framework\/","title":{"rendered":"Impacts of alien acacias assessed in a standardised framework"},"content":{"rendered":"

Impacts of alien taxa are often assessed by experts rather than based on available evidence, which could lead to biased assessments and hampers the comparability of data.<\/p>\n

A recent study by former C\u00b7I\u00b7B Hons student, Cally Jansen and C\u00b7I\u00b7B Core Team Member, Dr Sabrina Kumschick used acacias introduced to South Africa as a case study to compare expert assessments with evidence-based impact assessments.<\/p>\n

In the study, published in the journal Biological Invasions<\/em><\/a>, 33 Acacia<\/em> species introduced to South Africa were analysed using the Environmental and SocioEconomic Impact Classification for Alien Taxa schemes (EICAT<\/a> and SEICAT<\/a>). Comparing these evidence-based assessments with expert assessments as published in the National Status Report on Biological Invasions<\/a> showed that studies of sufficient quality to show irreversible impacts on native species and ecosystems as well as impacts on human well-being are scarce or lacking.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the difficulty to restore previously invaded habitats, it is likely that irreversible impacts exist, but they are often difficult to demonstrate and costly to study,<\/em>\u201d says Sabrina Kumschick.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looking at habitats affected by acacia impacts, grassland, forest, shrubland and marine-coastal habitats were all found to be equally impacted by acacias globally. This demonstrates that acacias have the ability to impact a large variety of habitats, and it shows their flexibility in being able to adapt to different environments. Acacias often compete for resources with native species, but only a few studies demonstrating their impacts on human well-being are available for this group.<\/p>\n

\u201cManagement of acacias in South Africa is difficult because they have severe negative impacts on native species, and also<\/em> provide benefits to local communities,<\/em>\u201d the first author of the study, Cally Jansen, says. \u201cStudies on how these trees affect people are needed to make more effective decisions regarding their control<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the full paper<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Jansen C & Kumschick S (2021) A global impact assessment of Acacia<\/em> species introduced to South Africa. Biological Invasions.<\/em> https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s10530-021-02642-0<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information, contact Sabrina Kumschick at sabrinakumschick@sun.ac.za<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Acacia saligna<\/em> or commonly known as Port Jackson (Photo credit: Suzaan Kritzinger-Klopper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A study by former C\u00b7I\u00b7B Hons student, Cally Jansen and C\u00b7I\u00b7B Core Team Member, Dr Sabrina Kumschick used acacias introduced to South Africa as a case study to compare expert assessments with evidence-based impact assessments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11009,"featured_media":4632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[76019,3256],"tags":[12735,73351,71759,71749,76359,73353],"class_list":["post-4623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-76019","category-news","tag-acacia","tag-eicat","tag-habitat","tag-impact","tag-mechanism","tag-seicat","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4623"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4641,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4623\/revisions\/4641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}