In our increasingly globalized world, it's not just commodities that get shipped around---ocean critters all too often tag along. Now scientists have developed a model to predict which ports and shipping routes are most at risk for invasions by non-native species.
Researchers from the University of Oldenberg in Germany, led by Bernd Blasius, used information from three million ship trips between 2007 and 2008 to study 1,400 ports and identify those most likely to be receptive to an invasion.
When a freight ship has unloaded its cargo in a port, it loads up on ballast water to keep the massive vessel balanced as it heads back out to sea. Upon arriving in a new port, the ship unloads that ballast water that it got in the previous port, which always includes little critters in the form of invertebrates and their larvae- jellyfish, mussels, fish eggs, plants, and pathogens.
Depending on ...
