Spartina anglica: a review of its status, dynamics and management (ENRR527)

The colonisation and expansion of common cord-grass Spartina anglica worldwide (except to some extent in the UK) is largely the result of introduction of an exotic organism into an area. At some sites, such as in Tasmania and the San Francisco Estuary, there are clear examples of the threat to biological diversity caused by this introduction (Lee & Partridge, 1983). According to Cohen (1997), more attention and funds have been applied to controlling non-indigenous coastal organisms after they have been introduced, than to preventing their introduction in the first place. Most introductions are accidental (ie via ships’ ballast water, aquaculture and mariculture, aquarium and ornamental plant trade and the importation of live seafood and bait) but S. anglica has also been introduced deliberately for the control of coastal erosion and land claim.