مؤلف: Franz Essl

– Elena studied and took her Master and Ph D on Ethology and Animal Ecology at the University of Florence, working mostly on aquatic invertebrates. Since as a Master student, she deals with the biological invasions problem, particularly in freshwater ecosystems, through different perspectives, from behavioural ecology to management aspects. Elena participated to several national and European projects (as DAISIE, IMPASSE) on alien species, and she recently started to work on the predictive aspects of this problem, especially in relation to the climate change. Her main fields of research range from biological invasions to social behaviour in invertebrates, leading her to travel around Europe, USA and Africa, to establish many fruitful collaborations and to produce 60 peer reviewed publications (42 with IF), 5 book chapters and 1 edited book.Currently, she is involved in the COST Action TD1209 (Alien Challenge). Elena was co-responsible for the revision of the freshwater species of the EASIN catalogue and she is on its editorial board.