Fruit flies are major economic pests throughout the world, causing huge economic losses to commercial fruit production. Some of the most notorious invasive species cause widespread damage by puncturing the fruit during egg laying and leaving the larvae to develop in the fruit.
Determining the extent to which organisms are able to tolerate and respond to climate change is important for assessing species vulnerability and informing strategies for biodiversity management. Recent work has demonstrated that responses to warming may be less variable and more predictable in marine than in terrestrial organisms.
Biological invasions are taking place at an increasing rate, causing environmental and economic problems worldwide. It is therefore important to be able to predict and identify those species that may have damaging ecological impacts.
“If you can't measure it, you can't manage it” is, as with all such well-worn phrases, only partly true. But to adapt another such maxim, while we might be able to make progress without measurement, we do need proof to satisfy everyone else.
The use and popularity of Google Earth has grown tremendously since its launch, and it has a range of uses from mapping and viewing mountain bike routes to monitoring chimpanzee forest habitat. However, Google Earth had no formal recognition or guidelines for its use in the field of invasion science, despite the fact that many scientists and managers use it on a regular basis.