The global scale of
alien species invasions is becoming more and more evident in the beginning of
the new millennium. Though the problem of biological invasions became a rapidly
growing research area, there are large gaps still, both geographically and thematically,
to be filled in the near future.
This book is the first
attempt to provide an overall picture of aquatic species invasions in Europe.
Its geographical scope stretches from Irish waters in the west to Volga River
and the Caspian Sea in the east, and from Mediterranean in the south up to the
Arctic coast of Europe. Not all parts of the continent could be equally
covered, as in some countries species invasions are not studied yet. The book
tends to represent the array of all major European aquatic systems on the broadest
geographical and ecological scope possible from fully saline seas,
semi-enclosed brackish water bodies and coastal lagoons to freshwater lakes,
major river systems and waterways. The key objectives include the present
status and impacts caused by non-native aquatic species in European waters.
Please note that lengthy species lists submitted for publication and additional
information were put on the Internet, as the electronical version of these
tables benefits from computer assisted search for data
(http://www.ku.lt/nemo/EuroAquaInvaders.htm).
Altogether more than
100 scientists from 24 countries have joined to synthesize the available
information on bioinvasions. However, the book does not claim to be fully
comprehensive. To complete the picture, we asked non-European authors to
contribute with facts not yet being dealt with in the European research arena.
The idea of this
volume originates from activities of the Baltic Marine Biologists (BMB), a
non-governmental scientific organisation that established a working group on
nonindigenous estuarine and marine species in 1994. The book benefited a lot
from co-operation with similar working groups of the International Maritime
Organization (IMO), the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
(ICES), and the Nordic Council of Ministers. We are indebted to these
organisations as well as to the Academy of Finland for funding major parts of
the editorial work. We thank all our colleagues for their individual efforts in
gathering information in many hardly accessible and scattered local sources and
making this available to an international reader. We also gratefully acknowledge
Camilla Roos, MSc, for her patient editing of miscellaneous versions of
“continental” English and technical assistance in shaping up of the book.
Turku, Hamburg and Klaipeda, June 2002
The Editors
