The haunting challenge of the trends and pathway assessments on newly introduced non-indigenous species in European seas

The spread of aquatic non-indigenous species (NIS) is recognised as a major threat to the recipient regions ecosystems. The present study reviewed all NIS that have been introduced to the marine waters of the European Union (EU) until 2021, and their introduction pathways. Further, the study statistically analysed temporal trends in new NIS introductions and addressed uncertainties in relation to transporting pathways. Time-series analyses indicated that the observed trends in new NIS introductions have followed smoothly increasing trajectories for the entire study area, Mediterranean Sea, North-East Atlantic Ocean, and the Baltic Sea, whereas abrupt increase was detected for the Black Sea. It is noteworthy that the increasing trends started to slow down at the end of 2010s. Strongly increased research interest towards marine invasions since the early 2000s, and new environmental policies likely affected the observed trends. Future updates will be key to assessing whether this slowdown is truly a persisting trend or only an anomaly in the long term. The pathway assessment suffered from notable uncertainties, as the assigned confidence levels for pathways were low or unassigned for a large proportion of the introduced NIS in all study regions. Transport by shipping vectors was assigned as the most common pathway (51%) for new NIS introductions to EU seas, although there was very rarely direct evidence of this. The study highlights the need to overcome the pathway uncertainties, as robust information on introduction pathways is critical to manage new NIS introductions effectively.

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Publication Details

Journal
Marine Pollution Bulletin
Published
2026-02-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2026.119407
Primary Topic
Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
Type
article
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article

The haunting challenge of the trends and pathway assessments on newly introduced non-indigenous species in European seas

Manuela I. Parente, Patrício Ramalhosa, Slavica Petović, Okko Outinen et al.
Marine Pollution Bulletin
Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
article

The haunting challenge of the trends and pathway assessments on newly introduced non-indigenous species in European seas

Manuela I. Parente, Patrício Ramalhosa, Slavica Petović, Okko Outinen, Borut Mavrič, Aina Planas Carbonell, Paola Parretti, Cátia Bartilotti, Martina Orlando‐Bonaca, Romeu S. Ribeiro, Jorge Lobo, Silvia Livi, Branko Dragičević, Peter A.U. Stæhr, Argyro Zenetos, João Canning-Clode, Natacha Carvalho, Marika Galanidi, ANA RAYARA LEMOS FERREIRA COSTA, Robert Comas-González, Miriam Tuaty-Guerra, Nuno Castro, Maite Vázquez-Luis, Frédérique Viard, Hans Jakobsen, Ann-Britt Florin, Rahmat Naddafi, Jakov DULČIĆ, Cécile Massé
article en

Abstract

The spread of aquatic non-indigenous species (NIS) is recognised as a major threat to the recipient regions ecosystems. The present study reviewed all NIS that have been introduced to the marine waters of the European Union (EU) until 2021, and their introduction pathways. Further, the study statistically analysed temporal trends in new NIS introductions and addressed uncertainties in relation to transporting pathways. Time-series analyses indicated that the observed trends in new NIS introductions have followed smoothly increasing trajectories for the entire study area, Mediterranean Sea, North-East Atlantic Ocean, and the Baltic Sea, whereas abrupt increase was detected for the Black Sea. It is noteworthy that the increasing trends started to slow down at the end of 2010s. Strongly increased research interest towards marine invasions since the early 2000s, and new environmental policies likely affected the observed trends. Future updates will be key to assessing whether this slowdown is truly a persisting trend or only an anomaly in the long term. The pathway assessment suffered from notable uncertainties, as the assigned confidence levels for pathways were low or unassigned for a large proportion of the introduced NIS in all study regions. Transport by shipping vectors was assigned as the most common pathway (51%) for new NIS introductions to EU seas, although there was very rarely direct evidence of this. The study highlights the need to overcome the pathway uncertainties, as robust information on introduction pathways is critical to manage new NIS introductions effectively.

Marine Pollution BulletinVol. 226
Universidade dos Açores (PT), Izmir Institute of Technology (TR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Rijksmuseum (NL), University of Lisbon (PT), Université de Montpellier (FR), Aarhus University (DK), Madeira Tecnopolo (PT), Finnish Environment Institute (FI), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE), Instituto Español de Oceanografía (ES), Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute (PT), Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (FR), Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (IT), Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (GR), National Institute of Biology (SI), Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (HR), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), Structure et Instabilité des Génomes (FR), University of Montenegro (ME), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (PT), European Environment Agency (DK)
Life below water
Openalex Percentile: Top 69%
Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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