Biosecurity implications of drifting marine plastic debris: Current knowledge and future research.

The introduction and spread of marine non-indigenous species (NIS) and pathogens into new habitats are a major threat to biodiversity, ecosystem services, human health, and can have substantial economic consequences. Shipping is considered the main vector for marine biological invasions; less well understood is the increased spread of marine NIS and pathogens rafting on marine plastic debris (MPD). Despite an increasing research interest and recent progress in characterizing the plastisphere, this manuscript highlights critical knowledge gaps and research priorities towards a better understanding of the biosecurity implications of MPD. We advocate for future research to (i) investigate plastisphere community succession and the factors influencing NIS propagules and pathogens recruitment through robust experimental investigations; (ii) combine microscopy and molecular approaches to effectively assess the presence of specific taxa; (iii) include additional genetic markers to thoroughly characterize the biodiversity associated with MPD and explore the presence of specific marine pests.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  Marine Pollution Bulletin

• Publication date

  2020-11-18

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Geography, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111835PMID 33220912
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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