HALT Ambrosia Deliverables

Control manuals for different uses and countries – Austria 1

Complex research on methods to halt the Ambrosia invasion in Europe HALT Ambrosia

Project ID: 07.0322/2010/586340/SUB/B2 Task ID: F Task Title: Implementation and Guidance Deliverable ID: DF.3 Date: 31.01.2014 Deliverable Title: Control manuals for different uses and countries - Austria Responsible partner: BOKU Contact person: Gerhard Karrer (gerhard.karrer@boku.ac.at) Contributing partners: Kind of deliverable: Based on project

results Desk top study

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HALT Ambrosia Deliverables

Control manuals for different uses and countries – Austria 2

Task No Questions to be answered 1 Status of Common Ragweed presence in the country 1 The present distribution of ragweed in field crops

2 The present distribution of ragweed in vineyards, orchards and nurseries 3 The present distribution of ragweed in meadows and pastures 4 The present distribution of ragweed on non-agricultural land and urban areas 5 Impact of Ragweed in Agriculture 6 Impact of ragweed on human health

2 Control methods used to control Common Ragweed including different mechanical, physical, biological and chemical methods

7 Ragweed control measures in field crops 8 Ragweed control measures in vineyards, orchards and nurseries 9 Ragweed control measures in meadows and pastures 10 Ragweed control measures on non-agricultural land and urban areas

3 Efficacy of various measures for Common Ragweed control 11 Efficacy of control measures in field crops 12 Efficacy of control measures in vineyards, orchards and nurseries 13 Efficacy of control measures in meadows and pastures 14 Efficacy of control measures in non-agricultural land and urban areas

4 Management strategies to control and prevent the spread of Common Ragweed

15 Management strategies on non-crop land 16 Management strategies in field crops

5 Preventive measures for introduction, establishment and spread of Common Ragweed

17 Management strategy coordination including coordinative institution 18 Prevention practices 19 Surveys and monitor programmes 20 Eradication campaigns

6 National regulations to control and prevent the spread of Common Ragweed

21 Acts: 22 Decrees: 23 Regulations:

7 Predictable effects of climate change on ragweed spread including pollen and its allergenicity

24 Ragweed spread in different climatic scenarios

8 Strategy for implementation and dissemination 25 Implementation and dissemination of knowledge

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Country: Austria Questions to be answered

Task 1 No Questions to be answered No moderate severe

Status of common ragweed presence in the country

1 The present distribution of ragweed in field crops

2 The present distribution of ragweed in vineyards, orchards and nurseries (or single plants)

3 The present distribution of ragweed in meadows and pastures

4 The present distribution of ragweed on non-agricultural land and urban areas

5 Impact of Ragweed in Agriculture

6 Impact of ragweed on human health

Comment: Please provide information on current distribution of ragweed, dynamics and status of spreading, sources of spreading, distribution maps. Describe impact of ragweed on agriculture and human health

Description: Common Ragweed was detected first in 1883 in Innsbruck. Up to the 60-ies it was documented rarely mostly from the urban centres. Since the 60-ies to the 80-ies ragweed started to invade agricultural fields (sugar beet, sunflower maize). Since the 90-ies of the last century ragweed was considered already as a possible weed of high concern in SE Styria. Today, Eastern and Southeastern Austrian fields are invaded intensively by common ragweed.

There is a strong gradient from heavily infested regions in the south-eastern and eastern parts of Austria to the western federal states. In the westernmost state Vorarlberg currently no naturalised population is known. But already in Tyrol west of Innsbruck some permanently infested roadsides plus adjacent agricultural fields are documented. Towards the east the next invasive populations are documented from the highways around Salzburg that obviously developed from the adjacent highways in South-eastern Bavaria (Germany). The degree of roadside infestation along the main highways increases towards the east. Many kilometres of infested roadsides are already known in Upper Austria. In Lower Austria the highway network is totally infested by common ragweed since 10 and more years – still increasing in density and expanding to lower ranked roads, i.e. in the lowlands around Vienna. In Burgenland already

HALT Ambrosia Deliverables

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the whole road network from highways to least ranked agricultural roads are infested. Styrian roads are heavily infected in the Southeast, and rather discontinuously in the mountainous regions. In the southern lowland areas of Carinthia many high ranked roads house huge populations of Common ragweed, arable fields are infected rarely.

The spread of ragweed happened mostly along the roadsides (less important along railways) during the last 20 years. In Burgenland and South-Eastern Styria also many agricultural fields are infested, some already since 4 or 5 decades. The following crops are most prone of being contaminated by ragweed: sunflower, oil pumpkin, red beans, maize, soya, cereals, potato, sugar beet and vegetables. The upper limit of naturalised persisting populations is about 800 m a.s.

Fig. 1: Distribution of common ragweed in Austria (map based on Karrer, G., Milakovic, M., Kropf, M., Hackl, G., Essl, F., Hauser, M., Mayer, M., Blöch, C., Leitsch-Vitalos, M., Dlugosch, A., Hackl, G., Follak, S., Fertsak, S., Schwab, M., Baumgarten, A., Gansberger, M., Moosbeckhofer, R., Reiter, E., Publig, E., Moser, D., Kleinbauer, I., Dullinger, S. (2011): Ausbreitungsbiologie und Management einer extrem allergenen, eingeschleppten Pflanze – Wege und Ursachen der Ausbreitung von Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) sowie Möglichkeiten seiner Bekämpfung. Endbericht, BMLFUW, Wien. 315 pp. German version available from: https://www.dafne.at/dafne_plus_homepage/).

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Questions to be answered Task 2 No Questions to be answered Chemical Mechanical (physical) Biological

Control methods used to control common ragweed

including different mechanical, physical,

biological and chemical methods

7 Ragweed control measures in field crops

8 Ragweed control measures in vineyards, orchards and nurseries

9 Ragweed control measures in meadows and pastures

10 Ragweed control measures on non-agricultural land and urban areas

Comment: Please provide basic description of current control measures used in the country for ragweed control in various agricultural setting and non-crop areas.

Description: Since 1990 the impact of ragweed on human health got evident. The awareness about the increase of allergic diseases and asthma induced by ragweed increased in health care communities and in institutions that take care of non-agricultural habitats with dense ragweed populations. I.e. the road services in Lower Austria tried to evaluate the degree of ragweed infestation and to train their staff on control of ragweed (mostly by mowing, unfortunately by less effective mowing regimes). They established a multidisciplinary working group on ragweed control at the regional level and funded a first regional project to evaluate the problem ragweed in Lower Austria and find best practice control options in 2007.

The scientific community started to focus on ragweed in the late 90s. Biologist got aware of ragweed as an important invasive in 2005. In 2008, a 3-years interdisciplinary project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Agriculture and 8 Federal States. Beside the focus on several scientific fields (population biology and genetics, history and mechanics of spread, community ecology and vegetation management, application of chemical and non-chemical control measures, allergology, communication strategy, etc.), several groups concerned with ragweed and all levels of stakeholders were integrated. The output of this project (Karrer et al. 2011) offers many options to increase the awareness of the human population, to implement actions against ragweed, giving very detailed instructions for best practice control options depending on the degree of infestation and habitat type within Austria.

Almost all levels of control are regulated in Austria at the federal states level. Thus it depends on the respective administration to take over the initiative that was set by the national project. Unfortunately, we experience little engagement of policy makers and relevant stakeholders to really address ragweed as the threat that it is for human health as well as to initiate and push actions against Common ragweed like in Switzerland.

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Questions to be answered Chemical Mechanical (physical) Biological

Task 3 No Questions to be answered poor good excellent poor good excellent poor good excellent

Efficacy of various measures for common

ragweed control

11 Efficacy of control measures on non-agricultural land and urban areas

12 Efficacy of control measures in field crops

13 Efficacy of control measures in vineyards, orchards and nurseries

14 Efficacy of control measures in meadows and pastures

Comment: Please provide basic information on efficacy of various control measures for ragweed suppression

Description: In Austrian conventional crop fields chemical measures are applied at various levels of accuracy. Therefore, the success can be good to inefficient, but never really excellent. Mechanical control is applied less intensively, most likely in organic farming often with poor success. In non-agricultural areas roadsides are managed rather inadequately. As a consequence ragweed is still spreading along the traffic corridors. In vineyards and orchards ragweed does not occur with high densities and thus no specific control measure is applied. Ragweed is managed within the framework of regular weed control there. In military training areas (often at the same time protected areas!) only mechanical control is applied with rather poor efficacy. Biocontrol is not in use against ragweed.

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Questions to be answered

Task 4 No Questions to be answered Yes No In development Management strategies to control and prevent the spread of common ragweed

15 Management strategies in field crops

16 Management strategies on non-crop land

Comment: Please describe existing management strategies to control and prevent the spread of Common Ragweed in your country.

Description: The result of the national ragweed project (Karrer et al. 2011) consisted of sophisticated management strategies to control existing populations as well as to avoid further spread. Unfortunately, the implementation was and still is rather unsatisfying. It took 2 years from the end of the project to establish a national ragweed working group that should coordinate all the activities that are mostly with the responsibility of regional and local authorities.

Further legal activities await EU-wide regulations and thus are discussed only at the regional level.

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Questions to be answered

Task 5 No Questions to be answered Yes No In development

Preventive measures for introduction, establishment and spread of common ragweed

17 Management strategy coordination including coordinative institution

18 Prevention practices (local)

19 Surveys and monitor programmes (local, regional)

20 Eradication campaigns (local)

Comment: Please provide list of institutions and describe management strategies, preventive practices, eradication campaigns, survey and monitoring programs and other preventive measures for introduction, establishment and spread of Common ragweed or other invasive alien species.

Description: Austria lacks a clear legal and organisation framework where all aspects of invasive plant species including ragweed are addressed. Occasional preventive actions, surveys or monitor programs were usually led by individual governmental and nongovernmental organizations. However lack of funding in the past resulted that the programs were not consistently performed and therefore implementation of management strategies did not reach all relevant target groups and end users.

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Comment: Please provide relevant legislation, laws and regulation which addresses Common ragweed or other invasive alien species issue in agriculture, trade, health or any other aspect

Description: The Federal Law on Plant Protection aims on the prevention of hazards of any plants for production of food and natural resources. Most prominent are phytosanitary measures that are executed at the level of federal states and their state laws and regulations. Some regulations at the federal state level were executed rarely in Styria.

Local police decrees could also be used to secure the health of the local residents. Obviously never used with respect to ragweed.

Questions to be answered

Task 6 No Questions to be answered Yes No In development

National regulations to control and prevent the spread of common ragweed

21

Acts: Federal law – (Bundesgesetz über Maßnahmen zum Schutz gegen das

Verbringen von Schadorganismen der Pflanzen und Pflanzenerzeugnisse sowie

betreffend Grundsätze für den Schutz der Pflanzen vor Krankheiten und Schädlingen

(Pflanzenschutzgesetz 2011) StF: BGBl. I Nr. 10/2011 (NR: GP XXIV RV 896

AB 1034 S. 93. BR: 8442 AB 8451 S. 793.) [CELEX-Nr.: 32009L0128, 32009L0143])

22

Decrees: Local Police decrees (various decrees at the state and town level,

formulated very generally to ensure healthful local living together)

23 Regulations:

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Questions to be answered Task 7 No Questions to be answered Yes No In development

Predictable effects of climate change on common ragweed

spread including pollen and its allergenicity

24 Ragweed spread in different climatic scenarios

Comment: Please provide information of any relevant studies on various climate change scenarios and related Common ragweed spreading

Description: There were several studies performed on climatic change scenarios and related ragweed spread. Based on these results, we can conclude that ragweed will probably spread further and can cover whole Austria except for the alpine altitudes within 50 years under the scenarios of future climate (see: (a) Vogl, G.; Smolik, M.; Stadler, L.-M.; Leitner, M.; Essl, F.; Dullinger, S.; Kleinbauer, I.; Peterseil, J. (2008) Modelling the spread of ragweed: effects of habitat, climate change and diffusion. European Physical Journal: Special Topics 161: 167-173; (b) Essl, F.; Dullinger, S.; Kleinbauer, I. (2009) Changes in the spatio-temporal patterns and habitat preferences of Ambrosia artemisiifolia during its invasion of Austria. Preslia 81: 119-133; (c) Dullinger, S.; Kleinbauer, I.; Peterseil, J.; Smolik, M.; Essl, F. (2009) Niche based distribution modelling of an invasive alien plant: effects of population status, propagule pressure and invasion history. Biological Invasions, Volume 11, Issue 10, Pages 2401-2414 (d) Smolik, M. G.; Dullinger, S.; Essl, F.; Kleinbauer, I.; Leitner, M.; Peterseil, J.; Stadler, L.-M.; Vogl, G. (2010) Integrating species distribution models and interacting particle systems to predict the spread of an invasive alien plant. Journal of Biogeography, Volume 37, Issue 3, Pages 411-422; (e) Richter, R.; Dullinger, S.; Essl, F.; Leitner, M.; Vogl, G. (2013) How to account for habitat suitability in weed management programs. Biological Invasions, 15, 657-669. In another paper (Richter R., Berger U. E., Dullinger, S., Essl F., Leitner M., Smith M. and Vogl G. 2013. Spread of invasive ragweed: climate change, management and how to reduce allergy cost. Journal of Applied Ecology. Vol 50 (6): 1422-1430) it was modelled that setting the right control measures would cost far less than half of the money that must be spent for human health and losses of agricultural yield within the next 50 years.

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Questions to be answered Task 8 No Questions to be answered Yes No In development

Strategy for implementation and

dissemination 25

Implementation and dissemination of knowledge to relevant end-users, farmers, decision-makers of

agriculture, environment and public health systems

(local) (local) (local)

Comment: Please describe national program for dissemination of information on the importance and impact of invasive species, on implementation of research findings into management strategies, control and eradication measures

Description: Although several research projects have been funded in Austria, the perception of the ragweed problem by authorities as well as the common public is bad. At the time of high pollen load in the air the media provide some hot stories, but only few weeks later the awareness and acceptance decreases significantly. I.e., many people get informed about the problem, but only few – mostly local authorities take action. The main problem is that there is no official federal regulation (like in Switzerland) that enables to keep the activity level by law permanently at a high level.