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Unwanted networks: Vessel traffic heightens the risk of invasions in marine protected areas

Invasive species pose a significant threat to a primary objective of marine conservation, protecting native biodiversity. To-date, research quantifying invasion risk to marine protected areas (MPAs) is limited despite potential negative consequences. As a first step towards identifying invasion risk to MPAs via vessel ballast or biofouling, we evaluated vessel traffic patterns by applying graph-theoretic concepts for 1346 vessels that connected invaded areas (‘invasion nodes’) along the Northeast Pacific coast to MPAs within Canadian waters in 2016.

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The issue of global biodiversity loss is so intense in the present era that it cannot be ignored as according to the reports of Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), due to human actions an average of around 25 percent of species in assessed ani