MOLTOOLS: a workshop on “Molecular tools for monitoring marine invasive species”

Abstract

The 2011–2014 European Community project VECTORS (‘‘Vectors of Change in Oceans and SeasMarine Life, Impact on Economic Sectors’’) was an integrated, multidisciplinary European project which aimed to improve our understanding of how environmental anthropogenic drivers are impacting European marine ecosystems now and in the future. VECTORS investigated how these changes may affect marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, the range of goods and services provided by the oceans, the resulting socio-economic impacts and some possible future scenarios for mitigation and adaptation. The VECTORS Work Package WP2.1 (Mechanisms of Change: Outbreaks and Invasives) was committed to identifying mechanisms of species outbreaks and invasions and introduction vectors as both symptoms and drivers of change in European marine ecosystems. VECTORS particularly focused on native outbreak-forming species (OFS) and invasive alien species (IAS) (Box 1) to deliver new information on (1) IAS and OFS distribution in European seas, (2) stochastic and deterministic drivers of invasions and ecophysiological features boosting regime shifts of marine communities, (3) sources and vectors of bioinvasions, and (4) consequences of bioinvasions, in terms of impact on ecosystem functioning and services. These studies provided a substantive contribution to the understanding of the ecological conditions in which outbreaks and alien invasions are more likely to occur, and the determination of critical thresholds/tipping points that mark alternative regime shifts in community structure and organization. The progressive reduction in the inherent costs of molecular data over the past 20 years, along with rapid recent technological and analytical developments, has resulted in molecular methods becoming an inescapable component of investigation on biological invasions, from simple biodiversity assessment to historical reconstruction of invasion histories. Within this context, 60 participants frwom 14 nations gathered in Lecce, Italy on 12–14th September 2012 for MOLTOOLS (Fig. 1), a dedicated workshop to discuss and promote the use of molecular tools for monitoring and understanding marine invasive species. The workshop was designed to address several key questions regarding mechanisms and management J. A. Darling National Exposure Research Laboratory, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Durham, NC 27713, USA