Ship-mediated species invasions in the Arctic

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Introduced nonindigenous species may have strong environmental, health and economic impacts, thus governments have placed a priority on identifying risks associated with their introduction to Canadian ecosystems. We have explored shipping vectors into the Great Lakes and to Halifax and Vancouver from overseas, although no studies have explored shipping vectors to the Arctic. The Arctic is particularly vulnerable to invasions because: i) enhanced seasonal retreat of pack ice will allow more species to disperse naturally across the Arctic Ocean from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, ii) pack ice retreat will potentially allow ships to utilize the Northwest Passage, and introduce hull-fouling or ballast water species; iii) warmer, better mixed coastal waters will experience enhanced algal production, which will be used by migrating species as food; iv) environmental suitability of coastal waters to southern invaders will be increased by enhanced seasonal warming. Here we will explore ballast water vectors associated with Canadian and foreign commercial vessels bound for the Arctic. We will also explore possible species introductions via hull fouling on these vessels. We seek to test the hypothesis that enhanced ship traffic increases the rate at which species are introduced to these northern ecosystems. We will also test the environmental suitability for a number of the nonindigenous species to determine their potential for successful colonization and spread in the Arctic ports using Environmental Niche Modeling. These studies will inform conceptual models of how species spread during biological invasions, and complete our studies on ship vectors arriving in Canadian ports.