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Identification of ecosystem services, i.e. the contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being, has proven instrumental in galvanising public and political support for safeguarding biodiversity and its benefits to people. Here we synthesise the global evidence on ecosystem services provided and disrupted by freshwater bivalves, a heterogenous group of >1200 species, including some of the most threatened (in Unionida) and invasive (e.g. Dreissena polymorpha) taxa globally. Our systematic literature review resulted in a data set of 904 records from 69 countries relating to 24 classes of provisioning (N= 189), cultural (N= 491) and regulating (N= 224) services following the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES). Prominent ecosystem services included (i) the provisioning of food, materials and medicinal products, (ii) knowledge acquisition (e.g. on water quality, past environments and historical societies), ornamental and other cultural contributions, and (iii) the filtration, sequestration, storage and/or transformation of biological and physico-chemical water properties. About 9% of records provided evidence for the disruption rather than provision of ecosystem services. Synergies and trade-offs of ecosystem services were observed. For instance, water filtration by freshwater bivalves can be beneficial for the cultural service ‘biomonitoring’, while negatively or positively affecting food consumption or human recreation. Our evidence base spanned a total of 91 genera and 191 species, dominated by Unionida (55% of records, 76% of species), Veneroida (21 and 9%, respectively; mainly Corbicula spp.) and Myoida (20 and 4%, respectively; mainly Dreissena spp.). About one third of records, predominantly from Europe and the Americas, related to species that were non-native to the country of study. The majority of records originated from Asia (35%), with available evidence for 23 CICES classes, as well as Europe (29%) and North America (23%), where research was largely focused on ‘biomonitoring’. Whilst the earliest record (from 1949) originated from North America, since 2000, annual output of records has increased rapidly in Asia and Europe. Future research should focus on filling gaps in knowledge in lesser-studied regions, including Africa and South America, and should look to provide a quantitative valuation of the socio-economic costs and benefits of ecosystem services shaped by freshwater bivalves.

Antarctica, an isolated and long considered pristine wilderness, is becoming increasingly exposed to the negative effects of ship-borne human activity, and especially the introduction of invasive species. Here, we provide a comprehensive quantitative analysis of ship movements into Antarctic waters and a spatially explicit assessment of introduction risk for nonnative marine species in all Antarctic waters. We show that vessels traverse Antarctica's isolating natural barriers, connecting it directly via an extensive network of ship activity to all global regions, especially South Atlantic and European ports. Ship visits are more than seven times higher to the Antarctic Peninsula (especially east of Anvers Island) and the South Shetland Islands than elsewhere around Antarctica, together accounting for 88% of visits to Southern Ocean ecoregions. Contrary to expectations, we show that while the five recognized "Antarctic Gateway cities" are important last ports of call, especially for research and tourism vessels, an additional 53 ports had vessels directly departing to Antarctica from 2014 to 2018. We identify ports outside Antarctica where biosecurity interventions could be most effectively implemented and the most vulnerable Antarctic locations where monitoring programs for high-risk invaders should be established.

Antarctica, an isolated and long considered pristine wilderness, is becoming increasingly exposed to the negative effects of ship-borne human activity, and especially the introduction of invasive species. Here, we provide a comprehensive quantitative analysis of ship movements into Antarctic waters and a spatially explicit assessment of introduction risk for nonnative marine species in all Antarctic waters. We show that vessels traverse Antarctica's isolating natural barriers, connecting it directly via an extensive network of ship activity to all global regions, especially South Atlantic and European ports. Ship visits are more than seven times higher to the Antarctic Peninsula (especially east of Anvers Island) and the South Shetland Islands than elsewhere around Antarctica, together accounting for 88% of visits to Southern Ocean ecoregions. Contrary to expectations, we show that while the five recognized "Antarctic Gateway cities" are important last ports of call, especially for research and tourism vessels, an additional 53 ports had vessels directly departing to Antarctica from 2014 to 2018. We identify ports outside Antarctica where biosecurity interventions could be most effectively implemented and the most vulnerable Antarctic locations where monitoring programs for high-risk invaders should be established.

This work is a collaboration between BioRISC (the Biosecurity Research Initiative at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge), Conservation Evidence based in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. It was created by documenting our experience of options, consulting guidance, contacting people working in different countries to explore the range of options and crowd-sourcing ideas through social media. We welcome suggestions for options missed (especially those implemented outside of the UK), innovations for novel options or means of improving existing options. Please contact biorisc@caths.cam.ac.uk. You can also view the list of options on the BioRISC website (https://covid-19.biorisc.com/) or customise the list yourself using this app we developed (https://alecchristie888.shinyapps.io/Covid_19_options/).

This solutions scan was initiated as a collaboration between BioRISC (the Biosecurity Research Initiative at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge), Conservation Evidence based in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, and numerous other researchers worldwide. This document can be viewed as accompanying the solution scan of non-pharmaceutical actions undertaken for reducing the transmission risks of COVID-19 (Sutherland et al. 2020).

Funder: Korean Government, In the present study, we evaluated the effects of different environments on the filtering rate (FR), mortality, and biodeposition (BD) of the freshwater mussel Unio douglasiae in bloom waters containing the toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa. The mean FR of 19 selected individuals (shell length, 5.0-9.8 cm) was 0.30 ± 0.03 L g-1 h-1 (range = 0.24-0.35 L g-1 h-1). Shell length was strongly correlated with both net and gross BD of mussels (P < 0.0001). The mean FR was higher in river water (0.405 ± 0.052 L g-1 h-1) than in lake water (0.304 ± 0.051 L g-1 h-1). In contrast, the BD of mussels was higher in RW (0.671 ± 0.609 mg g-1 h-1) than in LW (0.275 ± 0.027 mg g-1 h-1). For algal species, the FR of mussels ranged from 0.114 ± 0.024 to 0.553 ± 0.019 L g-1 h-1. The FR of U. douglasiae was higher in river water (mainly diatoms), whereas BD was higher in lake water (mainly Microcystis). U. douglasiae did not prefer toxic M. aeruginosa, which was significantly accumulated in pseudofaeces and faeces. The maximum FR of U. douglasiae in algal bloom water was recorded at a water temperature of 25°C and water depth of 50 cm. Moreover, the in situ mortality of U. douglasiae was strongly affected by water temperature and nitrogen concentration. Overall, U. douglasiae can enhance water quality in eutrophic areas by removing dominant cyanobacteria, although its removal efficiency depends on environmental parameters and site of introduction.

This is a joint submission from researchers at the Centre for the Study of Existential Riski and BioRISC - Biosecurity Research Initiative at St Catharine’sii , alongside collaborators from the University of Bath, the University of Bradford and the Biological Security Research Centre at London Metropolitan University. We argue here that there are a number of cross-cutting lessons to be learned from extant approaches to biosecurity, but that UK biological security — and the role of the UK as a soft-power leader in biosecurity globally — would be greatly enriched by the following: • Work to enhance the capacity and policy participation of civil society and academic actors in developing and implementing the UK’s biological security strategy on an ongoing basis • Work to further enhance biosecurity and bioethics education across both practice and policy communities • Further developing an approach that sees biological security as intrinsically connected to a number of other intersecting concerns, most notably, environmental degradation and climate change. • Establishing a national coordinating institution to act as a focal point for the UK’s national biological security strategy.

Early detection and rapid response are cornerstones of effective invasive species management. However, these strategies can be challenging to implement when the arrival of a non-native species has not been predicted, as may be the case when a species is discovered large distances from known populations. Brown marmorated stink bugs Halyomorpha halys are rapidly spreading across much of the world, causing substantial economic losses to agriculture as well as nuisance when entering houses to overwinter communally. Multiple individuals were recently confirmed in the Canary archipelago, marking a dramatic range expansion into subtropical Atlantic areas and the northwest African region. The potential establishment of this major pest species in this region raises important questions on its ecological adaptation to new climatic and biotic conditions an as well as the unknown impacts and control effectiveness in novel host crop plants such as banana. Previous attempts to control H. halys elsewhere have been typically only partially successful but we suggest eradication in the Canary Islands might still be possible and a sensible goal. Within a conceptual framework we review potential management options and encourage local authorities and stakeholders to implement specific surveillance, control and biosecurity measures aiming to swiftly eradicate this species. Not doing so risks a potentially severe invasion by this species across the region and significant damage to the local agricultural and ornamental plant economy. Our framework provides a basis for rapid response and management in other scenarios where an unexpected non-native species is detected.