Examples of current international, regional and national regulatory frameworks for preventing and managing marine bioinvasions

摘要

Significant global change has occurred through the accidental and intentional\udhuman mediated introductions of species in regions outside of their evolutionary\udorigins can no longer be disputed (e.g., Lubchenco et al. 1991; Carlton 2001;\udPimentel 2002). This change is well documented in a variety of terrestrial and\udfreshwater ecosystems (e.g., Drake and Mooney 1989) and is becoming increasingly\udapparent in marine and estuarine habitats in all of the world’s oceans (e.g.,\udCarlton 2001; Chap. 2, Carlton). Documenting the scale and rates of marine introductions\udand the subsequent changes to invaded systems has captured much of the\udmarine invasion ecology effort during the last 25 years (e.g., Grosholz et al. 2000;\udCarlton and Ruiz 2004).\udWhile the lessons that can be learned about evolution, ecosystem function,\udcommunity dynamics, and species biology and ecology from the study of biological\udintroductions are fascinating (e.g., Harper 1965; Carlton and Ruiz 2004), the challenge\ud“what should we and/or what can we do?” remains. The options appear to be\udsimple, however the details of implementation are difficult: we can choose to do\udnothing or we can choose to act.