Assessing coincidence between areas with alien species and priority conservation areas for vertebrate groups in a Mediterranean hotspot

Resumen del póster presentado a la 10th European Vertebrate Pest Management Conference, celebrada en Sevilla (España) del 21 al 25 de septiembre de 2015.Risk maps summarizing the landscape suitability of novel areas for invading species can be valuable tools for preventing species invasions through preventive conservation plans, since avoiding future invasions is less difficult and costly than the control or eradication of already-established populations. These risk maps are based on the identification of environmental variables affecting alien species distribution. In this study, this technique, was used to establish the areas that had a higher risk of being colonized by alien species, and then overlap these areas with priority conservation zones characterized by a higher vertebrate species richness. GIS techniques and spatially explicit predictive modelling were applied to determine habitat suitability for the diversity of vertebrate alien species in Spain. Our results showed that urban land uses and the distances to big cities and some climatic variables such as Mean Diurnal Range´´, ``Isothermality´´ or ``Mean Temperature of Driest Quarter´´ were key features to predict the distribution of alien species. Moreover, the numbers of native and alien species were positively correlated in accordance with the acceptance hypothesis that predicts a higher number of both native and alien species when more micro niches are available. We also identified Potential Conflict Areas, which have higher values for the number of both native and predicted alien species. Many of the identified potential conflict areas coincide with protected areas, which further aggravates the problem as these areas are often home to endangered species which may be adversely affected by the emergence of alien species.Peer Reviewe