Representation of data on invasive alien taxa for the Republic of Croatia

Invazivnim vrstama smatramo vrste koje se pojavljuju i šire izvan svog prirodnog prostora, gdje su unesene namjerno ili ne namjerno te ĉine drugi najĉešći uzrok gubitka biološke raznolikosti. Problem predstavlja nedovoljna informiranost šire javnosti o naĉinu širenja i samoj štetnosti onih invazivnih vrsta koje nemaju direktan utjecaj na ĉovjeka, a utjeĉu na smanjenje biološke raznolikosti. Cilj ovog rada bio je utvrditi usklaĊenost informacija o invazivnim vrstama meĊu znanstvenom i općom populacijom i prepoznavanje pravaca kojim treba ići radi podizanja svijesti o invazivnim vrstama. Kako bi utvrdila meĊusobnu usklaĊenost informacija dostupnih široj javnosti i znanstvenoj zajednici, napravljeno je pretraţivanje portala i citatnih baza (CROSBI, Scopus, Web of Science). Ovim pretraţivanjem utvrdilo se da su biljke najĉešće navedeni invazivni organizmi i u znanstvenoj literaturi i na portalima, koje po uĉestalosti slijede kukci. MeĊutitim, u javnim medijima ĉesto izostaje stavljanje vrsta u kontekst njihove invazivne prirode, kao i prevladavanje informacija o vrstama koje ljudima smanjuju kvalitetu ţivota, uz zanemarivanje onih koje imaju znaĉajan utjecaj na biološku raznolikost. U cilju podizanja razine osvješćenosti javnosti o problemu invazivnih vrsta, neophodna je bolja suradnja znanstvenika i medija.Invasive species are considered to be species introduced and spreading outside of their natural habitat, where their spread was accidentally or deliberately and they are recognized as second most important cause of biodiversity loss. The problem is insufficient information of the public about the way of spreading and negative impact of invasive species that have no direct impact on humans but they cause loss of biodiversity. The aim of this paper was to establish the compatibility of information on invasive species and to identify the direction we should go to raising public awareness on invasive species. In order to establish the mutual compatibility of information available to public and scientific society, a search of news portals and quotation databases (CROSBI, Scopus, Web of Science) was carried. This search found that the most frequently mentioned invasive organisms are plants, in both scientific literature and web portals, followed by insects. However, in public media context of invasive nature of certain species ussualy lacks. Furthermore, speices that causes nuisance to humans are much more present then those that harm the biodiversity. Better cooperation of scientists and public media is necessary to increase public awarennes of the problem of invasive species