ABSTRACT Marine systems worldwide are suffering escalating impacts from biological invasions, with increasing threats projected for the future. Despite substantial financial investments in managing marine invasive species, knowledge of their impacts remains patchy across regions and organismal groups. A global assessment of economic costs is urgently needed to assess invasion risk, guide management, and identify knowledge gaps. We analyzed the total economic costs of marine biological invasions worldwide from 1975 to 2021, examining the distributions of costs across time, regions, and organismal groups. Over this period, marine invasive species have cost at least US4. 3 billion, with the majority (US3. 0 billion) resulting from resource damages rather than management investments. These costs revealed substantial geographic and organismal biases. While most entries (56. 8%) were associated with invasive plants, most of the costs (76. 7%) were linked to invasive invertebrates. Moreover, the majority of costs were driven by a single species within each organismal group. Economic costs were available for only 26 out of 146 coastal countries, with sporadic data from Africa and South America. Economic costs were positively associated with national GDP but unrelated to the number of invaders. Compared to terrestrial (US2 trillion) and freshwater (US104. 8 billion) systems, marine systems had both lower numbers and magnitudes of economic costs, with all values referring to total costs between 1975 and 2021. These findings highlight the need for improved management and cost‐reporting systems to better address the impacts of marine invasions. In particular, management efforts should prioritize high‐risk species and highly vulnerable regions, with the development of species‐specific management strategies to enhance effectiveness. Moreover, proactive measures, such as strengthened regulations and pathway management, are crucial for reducing future risks and conserving marine biodiversity.
Yu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.