Book
Gaps and priorities in addressing marine invasive species
IUCN
2005
Abstract
For millennia, the natural barriers of oceans, mountains, rivers and deserts provided the isolation essential for species and ecosystems to evolve. In just a few hundred years, these barriers have been overcome by major global forces that have combined to help species travel vast distances to new habitats and become invasive alien species in their new environment.
Few countries have developed the legal and institutional systems that are capable of responding effectively to these invasive species. Many invasive aliens are "colonising" species that benefit from the reduced competition that follows habitat degradation. It is in this integrated context that IUCN has identified the problem of invasive alien species as one of its major initiatives at the global level.
The aquatic and marine environments present exceptionally challenging conditions for the control of bio-invasions. The absence of clear borders in the marine environment limits the options available to managers. Detection, particularly at low densities, is difficult. Species spread in a three-dimensional fluid system, where monitoring is a difficult and costly task. Moreover, many eradication and control options (e.g. clearance, shooting, pesticide, herbicide, etc) used in the terrestrial biota are harder to apply in the aquatic systems.
Details
- Title
- Gaps and priorities in addressing marine invasive species
- Authors/Creators
- Imene MelianeChad L Hewitt
- Publisher
- IUCN; Gland, Switzerland
- Number of pages
- v
- Identifiers
- 991005578626407891
- Copyright
- © 2005 IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Centre for Biosecurity and One Health
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book
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