Alien invasions: The impact of non-native species: Changing the face of life on land in antarctica?

Abstract

Unlike virtually any other area of land on the planet, the Antarctic continent is still largely un-impacted by the introduction of non-native species. Only a handful of non-native plants and animals (all invertebrates) are known, most from the northern Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc. While several are persistent, and slowly increasing in local distribution, none have yet become truly invasive. The same is not the case in many of the subantarctic islands, where two centuries or more of human occupation and exploitation have led to many both deliberate and accidental introductions, and to sometimes drastic and probably irreversible changes in ecosystems. Recent years have seen an upsurge in primary research documenting the presence and impacts of non-native species in Antarctica, and in applying this information to the governance mechanisms within the Antarctic Treaty area and those of the various subantarctic islands. Organisms arriving through human activities, today primarily in the form of governmental (science and support) and tourism operations, numerically far outweigh natural colonisation events to this very isolated continent. Added to this, current and in some areas very strong regional climate change trends act in synergy to increase both the numbers of potential colonists and their establishment probability. Continued and increasing human contact with the Antarctic region is inevitable, and this can never be entirely separated from the risk of new introductions. Practicable control and mitigation measures, based on high levels of awareness and robust monitoring, survey and response protocols, are therefore the primary mechanisms available to slow and control rates of introduction and establishment.