Assessing patterns in introduction pathways of alien species by linking major invasion data bases

Summary Preventing the arrival of invasive alien species ( IAS ) is a major priority in managing biological invasions. However, information on introduction pathways is currently scattered across many data bases that often use different categorisations to describe similar pathways. This hampers the identification and prioritisation of pathways to meet the main targets of recent environmental policies. Therefore, we integrate pathway information from two major IAS data bases, IUCN 's Global Invasive Species Database ( GISD ) and the DAISIE European Invasive Alien Species Gateway, applying the new standard categorisation scheme recently adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity ( CBD ). We describe the process of mapping pathways from the individual data bases to the CBD scheme and provide,…