Data from: Temporal modelling of ballast water discharge and ship-mediated invasion risk to Australia

Biological invasions have the potential to cause extensive ecological and economic damage. Maritime trade facilitates biological invasions by transferring species in ballast water, and on ships' hulls. With volumes of maritime trade increasing globally, efforts to prevent these biological invasions are of significant importance. Both the International Maritime Organization and the Australian government have developed policy seeking to reduce the risk of these invasions. In this study, we constructed models for the transfer of ballast water into Australian waters, based on historic ballast survey data. We used these models to hindcast ballast water discharge over all vessels that arrived in Australian waters between 1999 and 2012. We used models for propagule survival to compare the risk of ballast-mediated propagule transport between ecoregions. We found that total annual ballast discharge volume into Australia more than doubled over the study period, with the vast majority of ballast water discharge and propagule pressure associated with bulk carrier traffic. As such, the ecoregions suffering the greatest risk are those associated with the export of mining commodities. As global marine trade continues to increase, effective monitoring and biosecurity policy will remain necessary to combat the risk of future marine invasion events.生物入侵（biological invasions）具备引发大规模生态与经济损害的潜在可能。海运贸易可通过压载水（ballast water）与船体携带物种的途径，助推生物入侵事件发生。当前全球海运贸易总量持续攀升，防范此类生物入侵的工作至关重要。国际海事组织（International Maritime Organization）与澳大利亚政府均已制定相关政策，以降低此类入侵事件的发生风险。本研究基于历史压载水调查数据，构建了针对澳大利亚海域的压载水输入模型。利用该模型，我们对1999年至2012年间抵达澳大利亚海域的所有船舶的压载水排放情况开展了后报分析。随后，我们借助繁殖体（propagule）存活模型，对比了不同生态区（ecoregions）间压载水介导的繁殖体传输风险。研究结果表明，研究期内澳大利亚海域的年压载水排放总量增长逾一倍，且绝大多数压载水排放与繁殖体压力均与散货船（bulk carrier）运输活动相关。据此，面临最高入侵风险的生态区，多与矿产品出口相关海域。随着全球海洋贸易规模持续扩大，制定有效的监测与生物安全（biosecurity）政策，仍是防范未来海洋入侵事件的必要举措。