Managing Invasive Species – impacts & indicators

Invasive species are credited with reducing global GDP by 5% (see the article by Dropulich), but it is difficult to get a real handle on the losses they cause. Financial losses are one thing – it is even harder to measure and value environmental losses. As an example of the latter, a recent paper by […]

Inaction is a choice – selecting invasives to flourish

Something is going to die. It will be invasive species or it will be indigenous species. Inaction is a choice for invasives to survive to the detriment of indigenous species. That is the gist of a reflection on New Zealand’s Predator Free 2050 goal, published in New Zealand Geographic. ‘If we leave predators to it, […]

Invasive species – vigilance is essential

Highlighting the devastation due to invasive species and the imperative of investment in their control remains as relevant as ever according to several recent articles – especially given the impact of alien species on native species, ecosystem services, human health, and food production. A study published in ‘Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment’ found that […]

Rat Spill – an invasive species case study

A tiny Alaskan island faces a threat as deadly as an oil spill – rats. However, ‘biological spills’ can be much worse than oil spills, because they don’t necessarily diminish over time. Biological pollution can adapt, self-propagate and spread, says Professor Anthony Ricciardi from McGill University, Montreal. Interesting to think of invasive species, like wild […]