ALIEN DATABASES: ADDRESSING THE LACK IN ESTABLISHMENT OF NON-NATIVES DATABASES

Among the principal threats to the conservation of global biodiversity are biological invasions. To monitor their range expansion and develop control programmes, comprehensive, national species' databases need to be created and maintained. This is particularly important for invaders that are known to cause broad and significant ecological problems, such as decapod crustaceans, in particular crayfish. Initiatives such as the U.K. National Biodiversity Network have recognised the need to promote data exchange and are a valuable resource for collating individual survey records. However, for these data to be used efficiently for research and/or management purposes they need to be combined into national databases. This is challenging and time consuming as individual data-sets are typically in different formats. Here, we compile 25 459 non-native and native crayfish records (reported between 1870 and 2013) from England, Wales and Scotland into one database, Cray Base. Such national databases will help facilitate risk assessments for non-native species and promote conservation strategies for indigenous species by identifying populations under the greatest threat from invasives.