Non-Native Species in Our Nation's Estuaries: A Framework For an Invasion Monitoring Program. National Estuarine Research Reserve Technical Report Series 2002:1

摘要

Invasions of non-native species are now recognized as being second only to anthropogenic habitat destruction as a cause of global extinctions. The distribution of the world's biota is being altered to an unprecedented degree, largely through human transport. Estuaries are among the most vulnerable ecosystems in the world to anthropogenically-facilitated invasions, in part because entire coastal planktonic assemblages are moved between distant estuarine ports in ballast water of international vessels. Hundreds of non-native aquatic species have become established in U.S. estuaries, and some of them have been shown to have dramatic negative impacts on native biological communities, habitat structure, and ecosystem processes.