Prioritising surveillance for alien organisms transported as stowaways on ships travelling to South Africa.

ABSTRACT: The global shipping network facilitates the transportation and introduction of marine and terrestrial organisms to regions where they are not native, and some of these organisms become invasive. South Africa was used as a case study to evaluate the potential for shipping to contribute to the introduction and establishment of marine and terrestrial alien species (i.e. establishment debt) and to assess how this varies across shipping routes and seasons. As a proxy for the number of species introduced (i.e. 'colonisation pressure') shipping movement data were used to determine, for each season, the number of ships that visited South African ports from foreign ports and the number of days travelled between ports. Seasonal marine and terrestrial environmental similarity between South African an

SUBMITTER: Faulkner KT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5381868 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature