Latest Invasive species Stories

Models show habitat of the aggressive invasive plant likely will expand as temperature warmsIf the future warming trends that scientists have projected are realized, one of the country's most aggressive exotic plants will have the potential to invade more U.S. land area, according to a new study published in the current issue of the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management. The study found that tamarisk"”prevalent today in some parts of the region, but generally limited to warm and dry...

U.S. scientists have discovered the invasive garlic mustard plant, over time, loses its primary weapon -- a fungus-killing toxin it injects into the soil. University of Illinois scientists said their study is one of the first to show evolutionary forces can alter the very attributes that give an invasive plant its advantage. Garlic mustard plants are part of the family that includes cabbage and horseradish -- plants that rely on soil fungi for phosphorous, nitrogen and water. For whatever...

Like most invasive plants introduced to the U.S. from Europe and other places, garlic mustard first found it easy to dominate the natives. A new study indicates that eventually, however, its primary weapon "“ a fungus-killing toxin injected into the soil "“ becomes less potent.The study, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is one of the first to show that evolutionary forces can alter the very attributes that give an invasive plant its advantage. In fact, the study...

New algorithm explores future changes in plant populationsThe ability to envisage the future may be closer than you would think. A recent paper by Sean Hammond and Karl Niklas in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Botany (available here) presents an algorithm that may be used to predict the future dynamics of plant communities, an increasingly interesting area of study as significant environmental changes, such as global climate change and invasive species, are affecting...

Several of the world's oceanic islands are being invaded by nearly 400 outside plant species.Almost half of the species already dominate their new homes, and hundreds more are expected to make progress across the islands in the near future, according to BBC Earth News.These outside plants can wreak havoc in their new environments, where they are viewed as invasive weeds.Botanist Dr Christoph Kueffer of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and colleagues studied data from 30 island groups in...

A Great Lakes official says invasive Asian carp have made it miles beyond a Chicago barrier intended to keep the species out of Lake Michigan. Great Lakes Fishery Commission spokesman Marc Gaden said after genetic testing showed evidence of flying Asian carp five miles beyond the electric barrier of a Chicago canal, the power on the barrier was increased to prevent further incursions, The Detroit Free Press said Monday. These carp are clawing at the door now, Gaden said. The silver carp...

A collaborative team led by a University of Hawai'i at Manoa researcher has published the first-ever assessment of snail and slug species that are of potential threat to the nation's agriculture industry and the environment, should they ever be introduced in the U.S.The July 2009 article in the American Malacological Bulletin is authored by snail/slug biologist Robert H. Cowie of the UH Manoa Center for Conservation Research and Training (CCRT) and his team. They evaluated all known snail...

A study of oyster reefs in a once-pristine California coastal estuary found them devastated by invasive Atlantic Coast crabs and snails, providing new evidence of the consequences when human activities move species beyond their natural borders.Led by marine biologist David L. Kimbro, now of The Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory, the study shows that in Tomales Bay, half the population of California's native Olympia oyster has perished because its habitat has fallen victim...

U.S. senators from Michigan and other states are urging the Senate to consider tougher federal regulations on invasive species such as the zebra mussel. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., told a hearing of two subcommittees of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that legislation is required to keep zebra mussels and other invasive species out of the Great Lakes, the Detroit News reported Wednesday. Levin said the mollusks are believed to have entered the Great Lakes through ship ballast...

Biologists know that when plants battle for sNitrogen research shows how some plants invade, take over otherspace, often the actual battle is for getting the nitrogen.Now, research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln gives important new information on how plants can change "nitrogen cycling" to gain nitrogen and how this allows plant species to invade and take over native plants.In an article published July 6 in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of...