biological invasions

Read more about the article Improving pastures for the livestock industry poses major weed threat
Pathways that are driving the emergence of problems with newly developed pasture plants as invasive species (A) and potential solutions to these problems (B).
2014 / Highlighted papers

Improving pastures for the livestock industry poses major weed threat

The new approach of ‘sustainable intensification’ in the livestock industry aims to increase food production from existing farmland while minimising pressure on the environment. While beneficial in many respects, this approach poses a major environmental risk, since many newly developed pasture plants pose a high risk of becoming invasive.

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7 November 2014
2014 / News

Developing invasive species watch lists for resource poor nations

Invasive species risk assessments have been developed to identify species that pose an invasion risk. Unfortunately, risk assessments tend to be expensive and time consuming, and due to a lack of resources (data, skills and funding) many resource poor nations cannot implement these tools. For developing nations, a useful alternative approach may be to develop watch lists of invasive species.

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30 September 2014
Read more about the article Quantifying the impacts of alien species: developing an IUCN list
The different categories in the scheme to classify the impacts of alien species, and the relationships between them.
2014 / Highlighted papers

Quantifying the impacts of alien species: developing an IUCN list

One of the major transformations of the planet from human activities is the redistribution of species to areas outside their native range. These “alien” species have in many cases caused substantial harmful impacts to the recipient environment.

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27 May 2014
Read more about the article Volcanic lava flow fuels tree invasion on La Réunion
Casuarina equisetifolia seedling emerging from a new lava substrate of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano.
2014 / News

Volcanic lava flow fuels tree invasion on La Réunion

The volcanic island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean is the least disrupted of the biodiversity-rich islands of the Mascarene archipelago, with around 30% of the native vegetation still intact. She-oak or ironwood (Casuarina equisetifolia), a fast-growing tree native to Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, the Philippines, Polynesia, and Southeast Asia, was introduced to La Réunion in 1738, mainly for use as firewood.

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20 May 2014
Read more about the article Defining the impact of alien species
The sImpact working group in Leipzig, Germany, in July 2013
2014 / News

Defining the impact of alien species

All alien species cause changes to the ecosystems to which they are introduced. Such impacts are of many types - some are dramatic and obvious and can easily be classified as desirable or undesirable. However, for the vast majority of alien species, no information on impact is available. This greatly complicates the task of objectively assigning priority to management.

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13 May 2014