Invasive Species News

December 27, 2024

Top Headlines

An Inexpensive Fix for California's Struggling Wildflowers

Dec. 19, 2024 — California's native wildflowers are being smothered by layers of dead, invasive grasses. A new study shows that simply raking these layers can boost biodiversity and reduce fire ...

Are Particle Emissions from Offshore Wind Farms Harmful for Blue Mussels?

Dec. 19, 2024 — After several years of service under harsh weather conditions, the rotor blades of offshore wind parks are subjected to degradation and surface erosion, releasing sizeable quantities of particle emissions into the environment. A team of researchers ...

How Loss of Urban Trees Affects Educational Outcomes

Dec. 17, 2024 — Economists looked at test scores and school attendance for Chicago-area kids before and after a bug infestation wiped out the city's ash trees. Education outcomes for low-income students went down, highlighting how the impacts of ecosystem ...

Shrubs Can Help or Hinder a Forest's Recovery After Wildfire

Dec. 16, 2024 — When and where to plant tree seedlings to restore forests after wildfires has a lot to do with shrubs, finds a new ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:17pm EST

Threat of Abrupt Mortality Events Keeps Endangered Monkey Population at Risk, Despite Decades of Growth

Dec. 16, 2024 — Despite the population being almost four times larger than it was in 1982, a new study published in the journal Ecology suggests the northern muriqui ...

New Research About Drought Impacts on Wildlife Can Inform Conservation Strategies

Dec. 16, 2024 — New research shows that many wildlife species in the U.S., like the endangered giant kangaroo rat, will face much more frequent and severe droughts ...

Botanists Name Beautiful New Species of 'Lipstick Vine' from the Philippine Rainforest

Dec. 12, 2024 — Scientists have today announced the discovery of a species of lipstick vine completely new to science, from the depths of the Philippine rainforest. ...

Climate and Land Use Change Threaten Traditional Food Sources in Russia's Far East

Dec. 13, 2024 — The distribution of traditional wild food sources in the Republic of Sakha could change significantly, affecting the diets and incomes of Indigenous ...

Overfishing Has Halved Shark and Ray Populations Since 1970

Dec. 12, 2024 — A new analysis reveals that overfishing has caused populations of chondrichthyan fishes -- sharks, rays, and chimaeras -- to decline by more than 50 per cent since 1970. To determine the ...

Australia's Extinction Tally Is Worse Than We Thought

Dec. 11, 2024 — A new study estimates that more than 9000 insects and other native invertebrates have become extinct in Australia since European arrival in 1788 and between 1-3 additional species become extinct ...

Well-Meaning Dogs Led Astray by Rule-Defying Owners

Dec. 11, 2024 — While good dogs never mean harm, they are often directed to remain on-lead in nature reserves to protect wildlife. Research has found that whether dog owners follow this rule is mostly driven by ...

Human Disruption Is Driving 'Winner' and 'Loser' Tree Species Shifts Across Brazilian Forests

Dec. 10, 2024 — Fast-growing and small-seeded tree species are dominating Brazilian forests in regions with high levels of deforestation and degradation, a new study ...

Biodiversity at Risk in Most Rainforests

Dec. 9, 2024 — New research has revealed less than a quarter of the remaining tropical rainforests around the globe can safeguard thousands of threatened species from ...

Conservation Paradox: Invasive Species Are Often Threatened in Their Native Range

Dec. 6, 2024 — Non-native species introduced by humans are among the main causes of global species decline -- they were partly responsible for 60 percent of the ...

Spotted Lanternflies in the US Are Living Longer--and Cities May Be Helping Them Spread

Dec. 5, 2024 — Spotted lanternflies -- invasive insects that first landed in the United States a decade ago -- are emerging earlier and staying active later each year, according to an analysis of citizen-science ...

After Decades of Plantation Agriculture, Coconut Palms Dominate Over Half of Pacific Atoll Forests

Dec. 4, 2024 — Coconut palms are king throughout the tropics, serving as the foundation for human lives and cultures across the Pacific Ocean for centuries. However, 200 years of planting by colonial interests ...

Lifesaver for Wild Bees: The Importance of Quarries

Dec. 4, 2024 — A research team has investigated the importance of limestone quarries for wild bee conservation. Diverse landscapes with good connectivity between quarries and calcareous grasslands proved to be ...

Ecosystems: New Study Questions Common Assumption About Biodiversity

Dec. 3, 2024 — Plant species can fulfill different functions within an ecosystem, even if they are closely related to each other. This surprising conclusion was reached by a global analysis of around 1.7 million ...

Insect Fossil Find 'Extremely Rare'

Dec. 2, 2024 — Newly discovered insect fossils are so small they can barely be seen by the human eye but have been preserved in an 'extraordinary' ...

Sustainable Land Management Practice Successfully 'Uproots' Invasive Prosopis Juliflora in East Africa

Dec. 2, 2024 — The adoption of a sustainable land management practice (SLM) to manage invasive Prosopis juliflora -- considered one of the world's most threatening non-native tree species -- appears to have ...

Shells, Teeth and Bones of 'Weird and Wonderful Organisms' Provide Historical Environmental Clues

Nov. 27, 2024 — A groundbreaking international study shows how chemical fingerprints left by 'underappreciated' aquatic organisms could help scientists monitor global environmental ...

Under-Ice Species at Risk as Arctic Warms

Nov. 26, 2024 — 'Specialist' lifeforms that live under Arctic sea ice are at risk as the ice retreats, new research ...

Crayfish Map Gives Conservation a Helping Claw

Nov. 25, 2024 — A new mapping project puts 427 crayfish taxa and over 100,000 observation records on the first searchable global atlas: World of Crayfish. The resource will help protect vulnerable crayfish species ...

Scientists Develop Groundbreaking Method for Detecting DNA of Invasive Snakes in Florida

Nov. 22, 2024 — Scientists have developed a pioneering tool that can pinpoint where invasive species have been, aiding eradication ...

Mixed Forests Reduce the Risk of Forest Damage in a Warmer Climate

Nov. 20, 2024 — Forests with few tree species pose considerably higher risk of being damaged and especially vulnerable is the introduced lodgepole ...

Tree Islands Restore Nature in Oil Palm Plantations

Nov. 18, 2024 — Southeast Asia's tropical forests are renowned for their biodiversity, but at the same time face significant threats from the expansion of oil palm plantations. With global demand for palm oil ...

Diverse and Diverging Demands on Forests in Germany

Nov. 14, 2024 — Forests provide biodiversity, ecosystem functions, income and much more. How can these diverse and seemingly diverging demands be met? An international research team addressed this question by ...

New Study Reveals Half a Century of Change on Britain's Iconic Limestone Pavements

Nov. 14, 2024 — Fifty years of change on iconic limestone pavements has revealed mixed fortunes for one of the most distinctive landscapes in the UK. The findings, which reveal large changes since the 1970s, are ...

Frog Populations Once Decimated by Disease Mount a Major Comeback

Nov. 14, 2024 — Thanks to the consistent and focused efforts of researchers and conservationists to save, then reintroduce, mountain yellow-legged frogs to lakes in Yosemite National Park, their populations are ...

New Species Discovered With Refined DNA Technology

Nov. 13, 2024 — Sometimes plants are so similar to each other that the methods developed by 18th century scientist Carl Linnaeus for identifying species are not enough. Completely new species of daisies have been ...

More Evidence That Europe's Ancient Landscapes Were Open Woodlands: Oak, Hazel and Yew Were Abundant

Nov. 13, 2024 — A new study finds that the disturbance-demanding plant species oak, hazel and yew were abundant in Europe's forests before modern humans arrived, strengthening the argument that ancient ...

More Than One Third of Vietnam's Mammal Species Are at Risk of Extinction, Study Finds

Nov. 12, 2024 — A recent study highlights that over one-third of Vietnam's 329 mammal species are threatened with ...

Scientists Find Space-for-Time Substitutions Exaggerate Urban Bird--Habitat Ecological Relationships

Nov. 7, 2024 — A common way ecologists predict population counts may be an unreliable way of forecasting future bird counts in urban areas, meaning scientists may be overestimating and underestimating the losses of ...

How Gophers Brought Mount St. Helens Back to Life in One Day

Nov. 6, 2024 — When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, lava incinerated anything living for miles around. As an experiment, scientists dropped gophers onto parts of the scorched mountain for only 24 hours. The ...