In Sweden, there are about 2,000 alien species of which 388 are invasive alien species. Invasive alien species are species that compete and create problems for the native species we have in our nature. One of the major drivers of the introduction of alien species is transport. Transport between different geographical areas increases from year to year, making it easier for new alien species to enter the country. The purpose of this work is to investigate the distribution of alien species along roads of different sizes with different amount of traffic, to be able to get an overview of how the number of cars passing a road affects the spread of alien species and whether it differs among roads. Roads of different sizes were inventoried, in the municipalities of Lekeberg and Laxå, Sweden. Two of the roads were highways, 3 middle sized roads and 3 small sized roads. All species in the sample sites were inventoried, including native species. One-way Anova was used to check if there were any significant differences. The result shows that where most alien species were found, least native species could also be found. Other studies have found linkages between paved roads and invasive species, where it was found that paved roads had more alien species than gravel roads. The result of this study showed that most foreign species could be found along the middle roads and least along the small roads. This could be due to the smaller roads having less traffic intensity, which means that there is less chance of alien species entering these roads by cars. The fact that most species were found on the intermediately sized roads compared to the highways may be due to the higher speed and a higher traffic flow.

Invasive species are an increasing problem worldwide, threatening indigenous communities and species. In a world where people travel and trade a lot in a global market, many organisms are transported to new parts of the world where they have never existed before. Most do not survive in the new environment but die, but some thrive and thrive. When such species are established and multiply in places outside their natural range, it can be followed by negative consequences for species that have existed there for a long time - so-called indigenous species. Then the new species are often called alien invasive species. An example of this is the beautiful and colourful plant flower lupin (Lupinus polyphyllus)that people on their travels brought with them from North America, among other things, Europe. Global warming and increased trade between countries is the main reason why foreign species are introduced to new ecosystems while climate change means that habitats can change to become more suitable for an invasive alien species. The invasive species currently causes major economic losses worldwide. Lupins, park slides, and giant sheds are examples of invasive plants that have been introduced in European gardens because they are beautiful and easy to care for. They are also invasive, spread aggressively and are detrimental to our nature because they penetrate our native species. To stop these invasive plants and from damaging Europe's nature, the EU countries have decided to take action against certain species. On January 1, 2015, the EU adopted a regulation on invasive alien species and how to combat it within the Union. On February 5, 2016, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency submitted the Authority's proposal to the Swedish Government on new rules and measures on how to stop invasive harmful species. Already today, great resources are being devoted to combating invading plants such in our nature reserves. However, an early preventive or direct targeted intervention is much more cost effective than a continuous control of unwanted, invasive species with well-established populations. In order to succeed in this, we need an increased awareness of the problem of alien, invasive species among the public and decision makers, but also a sharp global analysis. Only with knowledge and continuous monitoring can we put in early action against future, aggressive invaders.

Abstract Pasture is a very species-rich but threatened nature type, and compared to 200 years ago, only five percent of natural pastures remain in Sweden. One way to try to save the biological diversity that pastures harbor is to restore overgrown land by clearing and reintroducing grazing animals. At the site chosen for this study, Hallands Väderö, 92 ha of pasture have been restored during less than ten years. The purpose of this thesis is to compare species richness in vegetation on recently restored land (cleared 2-10 years ago), land that has been grazed continuously for a long time and overgrown pasture, and to investigate whether the number of plant species increases with time after a pasture restoration. Thirteen locations on the island were selected, and three randomly selected square meter squares per area were inventoried. Each area was then searched for more species that were not present in the random squares. The data underwent analysis using regression analysis, ANOVA and Tukey test. Results indicated no significant relationship between the number of species in an area and the time (years) after a restoration. The Tukey test indicated that the biological diversity (effective number of species) was statistically significant higher on continuously grazed areas than on overgrown areas and that the number of species was statistically significant higher on restored areas than on overgrown areas. This means that there is an effect of the management; the number of species increases after grazing restoration, and biodiversity is higher on continuously grazed land than on overgrown land. The fact that the overgrown pasture has the lowest number of species shows that we risk losing species if pastures are abandoned and overgrown. / Sammanfattning Betesmark är en väldigt artrik men hotad naturtyp och jämfört med för 200 år sedan finns endast fem procent av naturbetesmarkerna i Sverige kvar. Ett sätt att försöka bibehålla den biologiska mångfalden, som betesmark hyser, är att restaurera igenväxt mark genom röjning och återintroduktion av betesdjur. På den valda platsen för denna studie, Hallands Väderö, har 92 ha mark betesrestaurerats under knappt tio års tid. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att jämföra artrikedom i växtligheten på nyligen restaurerad mark (röjd för 2–10 år sedan), mark som betats kontinuerligt under lång tid och igenväxt betesmark samt att undersöka om antalet växtarter ökar med tiden efter en betesrestaurering. Tretton platser på ön valdes ut och tre slumpvis valda kvadratmeterstora rutor per område inventerades. Varje område genomsöktes sedan efter fler arter som inte fanns i de slumpade rutorna. Datan analyserades med regressionsanalys, ANOVA och Tukey-test. Resultatet visade att det inte fanns något signifikant samband mellan antal arter på ett område och tiden (år) efter en restaurering. Tukey-testet visade att den biologiska mångfalden (effektivt artantal) var statistiskt signifikant högre på kontinuerligt betade områden än igenväxta områden och att antal arter är statistiskt signifikant fler på restaurerade områden än igenväxta områden. Detta betyder att det finns en effekt av skötseln; antal arter ökar efter en betesrestaurering och den biologiska mångfalden är högre på kontinuerligt betad mark än igenväxt mark. Att den igenväxta betesmarken har lägst antal arter visar på att vi riskerar att förlora arter om betesmarker överges och växer igen.