Global sea-level rise will create a new biological invasion front

Climate change is causing a redistribution of life on Earth but also creating new habitats that can result in biological invasions. Despite great efforts focused on predicting range expansions of non-native species under climate change, its induced sea-level rise may open new habitats for the landward expansion of marine non-native species into inundated coastal lands, which remains unexplored. Here we show that over two-thirds of inundated coastal land area (approximately 290,000–470,000 km2) will be environmentally suitable for 122 established non-native marine animals by the middle and end of this century, particularly in estuaries of mid-latitude regions. This emphasizes the need to consider sea-level rise when conducting invasion risk predictions under climate change scenarios. The development of effective early-warning systems and proactive management strategies will become critical for detecting and mitigating marine invasions into inundated regions as coastal lands continue to be reclaimed by the ocean across the world.