The morphological traits of invasive largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) are more specialised for preying on fish than native species counterparts. This was the finding of a collaborative project involving researchers from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands and C∙I∙B members from the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) and Stellenbosch University.
Freshwater ecosystems are under threat from many stressors, including climate change, pollution, habitat destruction and the invasion of non-native species. These stressors can have direct impacts on individuals (e.g. survival, reproduction), populations (e.g. range, abundance) and communities (e.g. biodiversity, richness).
The most recent assessment suggests that the Cape platanna is Endangered, but that instead the decline being fuelled by habitat loss, it is now the threat from hybridisation, competition and predation by the African clawed frog.
A new protocol for identifying and categorising the environmental impacts of alien species may help invasion biologists to complete a global stocktake on the environmental impacts of all known alien species by 2020.
A recent study by C·I·B post-doctoral fellow, Michelle Jackson, found that invasive species can have effects that reach across different ecosystems.