Abstract
Biological invasions have the potential to cause extensive ecological and economic damage. Maritime trade facilitates biological invasions by transferring species in ballast water, and on ships' hulls. With volumes of maritime trade increasing globally, efforts to prevent these biological invasions are of significant importance. Both the International Maritime Organization and the Australian government have developed policy seeking to reduce the risk of these invasions. In this study, we constructed models for the transfer of ballast water into Australian waters, based on historic ballast survey data. We used these models to hindcast ballast water discharge over all vessels that arrived in Australian waters between 1999 and 2012. We used models for propagule survival to compare the risk of ballast-mediated propagule transport between ecoregions. We found that total annual ballast discharge volume into Australia more than doubled over the study period, with the vast majority of ballast water discharge and propagule pressure associated with bulk carrier traffic. As such, the ecoregions suffering the greatest risk are those associated with the export of mining commodities. As global marine trade continues to increase, effective monitoring and biosecurity policy will remain necessary to combat the risk of future marine invasion events.
Highlights
Globalization of maritime trade has played a major role in facilitating the spread of species beyond their native ranges at historically unprecedented rates [1,2]
We present a case-study analysis: (i) quantifying vessel traffic, (ii) hindcasting ballast water discharge, and (iii) ranking the associated risk of biological invasion into Australian waters
We developed predictive models for ballast water discharge to assess temporal changes in: (i) the discharge volume of ballast water arriving in Australian ports and ecoregions and (ii) ballast volume from source ports and ecoregions, across vessel types
Summary
Globalization of maritime trade has played a major role in facilitating the spread of species beyond their native ranges at historically unprecedented rates [1,2]. In 2012, 9.2 billion tonnes of goods were loaded in ports worldwide, 2015 The Authors. Compared to 8.8 billion tonnes in 2011, exceeding the same period’s rate of global economic growth [4]. 2 Assuming the current rate of growth in trade continues, as much as 23 billion tonnes of cargo could be traded annually by 2060 [5]. Seaborne trade facilitates marine species transfer between source and destination ports via two main pathways: the exchange of ballast water and hull biofouling [6]
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