2016 SoE Marine Chapter - State and Trends - Introduced species

The Marine chapter of the 2016 State of the Environment (SoE) report incorporates multiple expert templates developed from streams of marine data. This metadata record describes the Expert Assessment "The state and trends of non-indigenous/non-endemic species – number and abundance of introduced species". The full Expert Assessment, including figures and tables (where provided), is attached to this record. Where available, the Data Stream(s) used to generate this Expert Assessment are accessible through the "On-line Resources" section of this record.

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DESCRIPTION OF ECOLOGICAL PROCESS FOR EXPERT ASSESSMENT
There are over 250 introduced marine plants and animals established in Australian waters (see marine pests.gov.au). Some have hitch-hiked to Australian waters on the hulls of vessels of all types from yachts to commercial ships, or in their ballast water. Others have been introduced to support local aquaculture, with the aquarium industry another vector. Some species are listed on the National Introduced Marine Pest Information System and are assessed under the ‘Number and abundance of NIMPIS-listed species’ assessment. This assessment covers those species not currently on the list.

DATA STREAM(S) USED IN EXPERT ASSESSMENT
This assessment is based on peer-review papers and reports as well as information on the marine pests website: see http://www.marinepests.gov.au.

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2016 SOE ASSESSMENT SUMMARY [see attached Expert Assessment for full details]

• 2016 •
Assessment grade: Good
Assessment trend: Unclear
Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus
Confidence trend: Evidence or consensus too low to make an assessment
Comparability: Grade and trend are comparable to the 2011 assessment
• 2011 •
Assessment grade: Good
Assessment trend: Unclear
Confidence grade: Limited evidence or limited consensus
Confidence trend: Evidence or consensus too low to make an assessment

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CHANGES SINCE 2011 SOE ASSESSMENT
The 2016 assessment is similar to the 2011 assessment. With very little information on most species abundances and no long-term monitoring of populations with which clear trends could be determined it was considered appropriate to assign a trend of ‘unclear’.