Risk assessments of animal species, plant species, and disease in the United States available online between 1990 and 2023

Risk assessments describe the risk of a species’ invasion in a location, and many risk assessments have been produced by different institutions for various reasons. However, information is sporadically located online, increasing the difficulty of developing comprehensive lists of species with risk assessments or comparing assessment results across species in locations of interest. Therefore, we aggregated species risk assessments by searching information systems and conducting a literature review. The methods for data aggregation are explained in the larger work citation (Dean et al. 2024). The present dataset documents risk assessments available at different spatial scales (e.g., territory, state, region, nation) for over 7,000 species including (but not limited to) fishes, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, plants, algae, and fungi. The dataset was used to help develop SIREN, a national Early Detection and Rapid Response Information System (https://www.usgs.gov/centers/fort-collins-science-center/science/siren-…). It is important to note that most sources of risk assessments were available when collected in 2023; therefore, it is possible that the risk assessments detailed in the dataset may be removed online for one reason or another since 2023 (e.g., Grisé 2011). Additionally, some sources of risk assessments no longer exist but were described in a summary report or in an information system (e.g., Invasive Species Centre; https://www.invasivespeciescentre.ca/invasive-species/what-is-at-risk/i…) in 2023; consequently, a user of the data may need to contact the original source of risk assessments to receive additional information (e.g., NatureServe).

Summary reference citations:
Dean, E.M., Jordon, A., Agnew, A.C., Hernandez, N.D., Morningstar, C.R., Neilson, M., Piccolomini, S.E., Reichert, B., Wray, A.K., and Daniel, W.M., 2024, America’s Most Wanted Fishes—Cataloging risk assessments to prioritize invasive species for management action: Management of Biological Invasions, v. 15, no. 1, p. 1–20, https://doi.org/10.3391/mbi.2024.15.1.01.

Grisé, S., 2011, Evaluating the risk of non-native aquatic species range expansions in a changing climate in Pennsylvania: Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, Shippensburg University, Ph.D. dissertation.