The Human Impacts Database

A collection of useful numbers for quantifying the impacts of the human presence on Earth.

Number of marine non-indigenous species in Europe

This quantity comes from a time series measurement and the most recent value (2017) is reported.


Value:		≈ 1039 species
HuID:		84779
Relevant Year(s):		2017
Summary:		Cumulative number and trend in the introduction and recording of marine non-indigenous species (NIS) in the regional seas of Europe since 1949. Biological invasions are widely recognised as one of the main threats to biodiversity, alongside habitat destruction and pollution. NIS, also known as alien species, are species introduced to areas outside their native range. NIS are defined as any live specimen of a species, subspecies or lower taxon of animals, plants, fungi or micro-organisms introduced outside their natural range.
Method:		Geographical coverage: Europe’s seas. Marine and estuarine species data were extracted from the working database and grouped by country at pan-European level (i.e. EU and non-EU). Country data were further aggregated at regional sea level, following the geographical delineation of the regional seas surrounding Europe. Sub-regions of the regional seas: Baltic Sea (no subdivision), North-East Atlantic Ocean (Greater North Sea, Celtic Sea, Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast), Mediterranean Sea (Western Mediterranean Sea, Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea, Adriatic Sea, Aegean-Levantine Sea), Black Sea and Iceland Sea. The year of introduction is based on reported first collection dates but does not necessarily imply the true year of introduction, which may be years earlier. For 2016-17, the rate of introduction is underestimated; due to a time lapse between observation and publication, species collected in the 2016-17 period are expected to be published in the next 2 years. The uncertainties behind data sets on NIS reflect the challenge of adequately discovering and reporting new species or mapping their distribution, but also of compiling data at a national level (Zenetos et al., 2017).
Source:		European Environment Agency Trends in marine non-indigenous species. (2019)
Dataset:		Number of non-indigenous species in European Seas (non_ind_marine_species_europe.csv) regional resolution
Trend:
Original Data License:		CC-BY 2.5 DK
Added By:		ilopezgo