Panov

“Aquatic Invasions” is a rapid on-line journal focusing on biological invasions in European inland and coastal waters and potential donor areas of aquatic invasive species for Europe (ISSN: 1818-5487, http://www.aquaticinvasions.ru). The journal provides the opportunity of timely publication of first records of biological invaders for consideration in risk assessments and early warning systems. Also, the journal provides the opportunity to publish relevant technical reports and other accounts not publishable in regular scientific journals. “Aquatic Invasions” is an important part of the developing Pan-European and regional early warning systems on aquatic invasive species, with an important service of protection of author rights on primary geo-referenced records on introduced species and biological monitoring and surveys. In 2006, more than 50 research articles and short communications in 4 regular issues of the first volume of “Aquatic Invasions” included geo-referenced information on range expansions and first records in European coastal waters of such highly invasive species as Conrad’s false mussel Mytilopsis leucophaeata, Wedge clam Rangia cuneata, grapsid crab Percnon gibbesi, Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis, ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi and round goby Neogobius melanostomus. Start-up funding for “Aquatic Invasions” is provided by the European Commission Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development Integrated Project ALARM (GOCE-CT-2003-506675), with general networking support from the EC FP6 Strategic Targeted Research Project DAISIE (SSPI-CT-2003-511202). “Aquatic Invasions” is also serving aquatic component of the European information system on alien species which is currently developing in frameworks of the EC FP6 STREP DAISIE (http://www.europe-aliens.org ) through publication of the national checklists of aquatic alien species representing core component of the project database. In future “Aquatic Invasions” may provide relevant services for other projects and information systems related to invasive species and marine biodiversity, including MarBEF-supported EurOBIS.