What’s the relationship between climate change and marine invasive species?
Studies have found that climate change processes and effects favour introduced species in the terrestrial environment. Climate change can disrupt ecosystem processes therefore encouraging introduced species to become established. Climate change also intensifies the effects caused by invasive species, including competition with native species for resources and the alteration of native ecosystems. Vectors of Introduction What are the primary two ways marine species are introduced globally? Most species are introduced by ballast water transfer and hull-fouling. What is ballast water? Ballast water is the seawater that is used to stabilise and balance cargo ships. When the ship has no cargo, it must be filled with water to stabilise it. When it is full of cargo, the ballast tanks are empty. Therefore, the water is loaded at one port, taking lots of marine species with it, and unloaded at another port, carrying these species and dumping them in new marine environments. Some of these species
