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Fifth international conference on marine bioinvasions
Introduction
MIT Sean Grant College Program
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
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Among the most serious environmental concerns facing the world today are global warming, habitat loss, and ecological changes as a consequence of introduced species. Of these, the threat of introduced species has been probably the most overlooked; in particular, marine bioinvaders have been less well studied and documented than terrestrial and fresh-water invasions, in large part because marine organisms are less accessible and less visible, especially to the public. Over the past couple of decades, however, research on vectors, patterns of distribution, ecological and economic impacts, and evolutionary consequences of non-native marine species has expanded to such a degree that nearly every major conference now devotes a session to introduced species.
In 1999, the First Conference on Marine Bioinvasions was one of the very first major meetings to focus specifically on marine bioinvasions. The papers in the Proceedings from that first conference collectively represented an overview of our understanding of