Latest Invasive species Stories

Move Helps Protect Against Invasive Species, Benefit Important Industry HARRISBURG, Pa., March 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced today that out-of-state firewood producers now have two additional treatment options for exempting their firewood products from a quarantine meant to keep harmful invasive species from entering Pennsylvania: heat treatment and fumigation. "Invasive species can have a damaging effect on Pennsylvania's...

The Great Lakes, beset by toxic contamination, invasive species and disappearing wildlife habitat, are the center of attention in a new five-year plan by the Obama administration to clean up the vast ecosystem. A document on the plan was released at a news conference in Washington on Sunday by Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency. The plan is for $2.2 billion in funding to be set aside for reviving the lakes after more than a century of damage. According to the Associated...

Non-native species have adapted by adjusting the timing of seasonal activities such as floweringInvasive plants could become even more prevalent and destructive as climate change continues, according to a new analysis of data stretching back more than 150 years.Writing in the journal PLoS ONE, the Harvard University scientists who conducted the study say that non-native plants, and especially invasive species, appear to thrive during times of climate change because they're better able to...

An international research team has studied the distribution of plant species in mountainous environments. The study shows that mountain plant communities are not particularly resistant to invasion by exotic species. The scientists also warn that these may become more aggressive as global warming gets a grip.In 2005, scientists from various science centers in Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, the United States and Chile created the Mountain Invasion Research Unit (MIREN) in order to...

A recent study about movement of bird species during the Cold War outlines one of the perils facing an expanding global economy "“ along with international trade comes the potential for a significant increase in invasive species that can disrupt ecosystems.The research found that during an extended period following World War II, when most trade and travel was interrupted between Eastern Europe and its western counterparts, there were far fewer introduced bird species."Last year, people...

University of Delaware researchers have uncovered a novel means of conquest employed by the common reed, Phragmites australis, which ranks as one of the world's most invasive plants.The invasive strain, which hails from Eurasia, overtakes its "native" cousin, which has lived in North America for the past 10,000 years, ironically by provoking the native plant to "take itself out," through a combination of microbial and enzymatic activity in the soil.The research by an interdisciplinary UD team...

And thereby losing the ability to react to environmental changesWith increasing species richness, due to more plant introductions than extinctions, plant communities of many European regions are becoming more homogeneous. The same species are occurring more frequently, whereas rare species are becoming extinct. It is not only the biological communities that are becoming increasingly similar, but also the phylogenetic relations between regions. These processes have led to a loss of uniqueness...

U.S. researchers say they've determined it will not be easy to scientifically predict the spread of invasive plants and animals. University of California-Davis Professor Alan Hastings and University of Colorado-Boulder Assistant Professor Brett Melbourne used a tightly controlled laboratory experiment and a mathematical model to reach their conclusion. When they released 600 identical beetles and allowed them to spread at will through 30 identical landscapes over 13 generations, they noted a...

Unknowns may place more species at risk in a changing climateWhether for introduced muskrats in Europe or oak trees in the United Kingdom, zebra mussels in United States lakes or agricultural pests around the world, scientists have tried to find new ways of controlling invasive species by learning how these animals and plants take over in new environs.In a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Science, biologists Brett Melbourne of the University of Colorado and Alan Hastings of...

The U.S. Forest Service says computer models suggest tamarisk -- an aggressive invasive plant -- will likely expand its habitat if the climate changes. Scientists at the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station say if projected warming trends are realized, one of the nation's most aggressive exotic plants will invade more U.S. land area. Results of our study suggest that a little over 20 percent of the Northwest east of the Cascade Mountains supports suitable tamarisk habitat, but...