Invasive Species News

June 15, 2024

Top Headlines

Some Species May Tolerate Climate Change Better Than Expected

May 29, 2024 — A new model reassesses the proportion of terrestrial and marine species threatened with extinction by climate change. While the forecasts of traditional models estimate that the diversity of terrestrial species in tropical areas could decrease by ...

Novel Genetic Clock Discovers Oldest Known Marine Plant

June 10, 2024 — An international research team has discovered the oldest known marine plant using a novel genetic clock. This 1400-year-old seagrass clone from the Baltic Sea dates back to the Migration Period. The research project is a significant step towards ...

Combining Pest Treatments May Be Key to Helping Honey Bees Survive the Winter

June 4, 2024 — Winters can be tough on managed honey bee colonies, with beekeepers in the United States reporting that one-third of their colonies die each winter. A new study has found that using not one but ...

Frequent Mowing Puts Poisonous Weed Into Survival Mode

June 3, 2024 — A study has found that frequent mowing of Solanum elaeagnifolium, also known as silverleaf nightshade, may help create a 'superweed.' A professor of entomology and plant pathology has been studying silverleaf nightshade for more than a decade. New ...

Latest Headlines

updated 6:33pm EDT

The Missing Puzzle Piece: A Striking New Snake Species from the Arabian Peninsula

May 30, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new distinctive and secretive snake species in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. The new species is widely distributed ...

Lazy Predator: A New Species of Mountain Pitviper from China

June 11, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new species of medium-sized venomous snake in Yunnan, China. Ovophis jenkinsi is dark brownish-grey in color with trapezoidal patches on its back. It is endemic to ...

Slugs and Snails Love the City, Unlike Other Animals

May 29, 2024 — Most native species avoid more urbanized areas of Los Angeles, but slugs and snails may actually prefer these environments, according to a new ...

Captivating Blue-Colored Ant Discovered in India's Remote Siang Valley

June 3, 2024 — A new species of blue ant was discovered in Yingku village in Arunachal Pradesh, Northeastern India. It was named Paraparatrechina neela, after the word 'neela' which means blue in various Indian ...

Urgent Need for Action Now for Increasing Threat from Invasive Alien Species

June 3, 2024 — Urgent action now is needed to tackle the major and growing global issue of invasive alien species, says a team of 88 experts from 47 countries. The ...

Mussels Downstream of Wastewater Treatment Plant Contain Radium, Study Reports

May 31, 2024 — Burrowed into streambeds and rarely moving for their decades-long lifespans, freshwater mussels are biomonitors, meaning they indicate how clean ...

Tracing the Evolution of Ferns' Surprisingly Sweet Defense Strategy

May 30, 2024 — Plants and the animals that eat them have evolved together in fascinating ways, creating a dynamic interplay of survival strategies. Many plants have developed physical and chemical defenses to fend ...

What Makes Some Plant Groups So Successful?

May 29, 2024 — Researchers involved in cataloguing the world's plant species are hunting for answers as to what makes some groups of plants so successful. One of their major goals is to predict more accurately ...

Fatal Attraction: When Endangered Species Try to Mate With Domestic Relatives, Both Wildlife and People Lose

May 29, 2024 — Sticks and stones aren't enough to thwart biological attraction, but sometimes those are the only tools available to pastoralists trying to prevent ...

Marine Protected Areas Don't Line Up With Core Habitats of Rare Migratory Fish, Finds New Research

May 29, 2024 — 62% of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) designated to protect rare migratory fish species are outside of their core habitats, according to a new ...

Wild Megalopolis: Study Shows Unexpected Pockets of Biodiversity Pepper Los Angeles

May 29, 2024 — Researchers, in partnership with the city of Los Angeles, have developed the urban association index to help identify how well or poorly individual wildlife species are doing in the city. The ...

Community Science Volunteers Can Set Scientific World Abuzz With New Bumble Bee Sightings

May 22, 2024 — Community science volunteers -- laypeople with an interest in bees and conservation -- significantly contribute to the scientific knowledge of native bumble bees across Canada and the United States. ...

Legacy of Indigenous Stewardship of Camas Dates Back More Than 3,500 Years

May 21, 2024 — A new study found evidence that Indigenous groups in the Pacific Northwest were intentionally harvesting edible camas bulbs at optimal stages of the plant's maturation as far back as 3,500 years ...

Regional Differences in Bird Diversity in Agroforestry Systems

May 21, 2024 — The diversity and ecological functionality of bird communities in tropical agroforestry systems are shaped by the surrounding landscape, in particular the extent and composition of the ...

Researchers Find Unique Adaptations of Fungus Associated With Bee Bread

May 21, 2024 — The past attempts of honey bee researchers to inventory the fungal diversity in honey bee colonies revealed that Aspergillus flavus is frequently found in hives. In a new study, researchers have ...

A Rise in Sea Urchins and Related Damage to Kelp Forests Impacts Oregon's Gray Whales and Their Food

May 21, 2024 — A recent boom in the purple sea urchin population off the southern Oregon Coast appears to have had an indirect and negative impact on the gray whales that usually forage in the region, a new study ...

Cloudy Waters Causes African Fish to Develop Bigger Eyes

May 20, 2024 — Variations in water quality can impact the development of the visual system of one species of African fish, suggests a new ...

Evolutionary History of Extinct Duck Revealed

May 20, 2024 — The study's findings show mergansers arrived in the New Zealand region at least seven million years ago from the Northern Hemisphere, in a separate colonisation event to that which led to the ...

Bees and Butterflies on the Decline in Western and Southern North America

May 15, 2024 — Bee and butterfly populations are in decline in major regions of North America due to ongoing environmental change, and significant gaps in pollinator research limit our ability to protect these ...

Tiger Beetles Fight Off Bat Attacks With Ultrasonic Mimicry

May 15, 2024 — When tiger beetles hear a bat nearby, they respond by creating a high-pitched, ultrasonic noise, and for the past 30 years, no one has known why. In a new study, scientists lay the mystery to rest by ...

Meet the New Insect Killing Utah's Fir Trees

May 14, 2024 — The balsam woolly adelgid, a tiny nonnative flightless insect, is spreading across the American West killing subalpine fir in northern Utah's recreation-heavy mountain ranges and canyons. ...

Rapid Oyster Reef Restoration Gives Hope for Repairing the Sea

May 9, 2024 — After a century of functional extinction on the Australian mainland, a Flat oyster reef has been successfully restored along a metropolitan Adelaide ...

Scientists Find Ancient, Endangered Lamprey Fish in Queensland, 1400 Km North of Its Previous Known Range

May 8, 2024 — Scientists have confirmed the identity of an unusual, ancient and Endangered species of fish that is living in the coastal rivers of Queensland, about 1400 km north of where it was previously known ...

Artificial Intelligence Enhances Monitoring of Threatened Marbled Murrelet

May 2, 2024 — Artificial intelligence analysis of data gathered by acoustic recording devices is a promising new tool for monitoring the marbled murrelet and other secretive, hard-to-study ...

Protecting Endangered Monkeys from Poachers, Habitat Loss

Apr. 30, 2024 — The 17 species of red colobus monkey living across Africa, including in the Tai Project field station region, have been singled out by scientists as a priority conservation target. Protection of ...

Hornets Found to Be Primary Pollinators of Two Angelica Species

Apr. 29, 2024 — Researcher discovered that two species in the genus Angelica are pollinated primarily by hornets. This overturns the conventional belief that Angelica species are 'generalists,' meaning ...

Deer Are Expanding North, and That's Not Good for Caribou

Apr. 25, 2024 — In the boreal forest of Western Canada, researchers have considered that both changing climate and increased habitat alteration have enabled deer to push farther ...

Unveiling the Lionfish Invasion in the Mediterranean Sea

Apr. 25, 2024 — Researchers have published a comprehensive study on the invasion of lionfish in the Mediterranean Sea, highlighting a rapid spread and the potential ecological impacts. The research shows the ...

Can Climate Change Accelerate Transmission of Malaria? Pioneering Research Sheds Light on Impacts of Temperature

Apr. 24, 2024 — A groundbreaking study combined novel experimental data within an innovative modeling framework to examine how temperature might affect transmission risk of malaria in different environments in ...

How Parasites Shape Complex Food Webs

Apr. 24, 2024 — A new study sheds light on how parasites, often overlooked, can dramatically affect the balance between predator and prey populations. Researchers developed a groundbreaking mathematical framework ...