Read more about the article Taxonomy and introduction histories of non-native Prosopis populations for their effective management
Members of the research team during a fieldwork expedition in Ethiopia. From the left is Prof. Brian van Wilgen (C·I·B Core Team Member), Prof. Jaco Le Roux (C·I·B Research Associate) and Dr. María Loreto Castillo (C·I·B PhD graduate). (Photo provided by Prof. Brian van Wilgen)

Taxonomy and introduction histories of non-native Prosopis populations for their effective management

Trees in the genus Prosopis (known as mesquite) have been widely planted outside of their native ranges in many countries, and many species are now among the world’s worst woody invasives. The genus contains 44 species from the Americas, South West Asia and North Africa, and several have become major problems in South and East Africa.

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Read more about the article Refining the distribution of co-occurring invasive sportfishes and their hybrids
John Hargrove holding a Florida Bass (Micropterus floridanus) (Photo credit: Drew Dutterer)

Refining the distribution of co-occurring invasive sportfishes and their hybrids

Multiple species of black bass (a collective term that refers to members of the genus Micropterus, including Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides and Florida Bass Micropterus floridanus) have been introduced into southern Africa and form the basis of an important recreational fishery.

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Read more about the article Sleeping with the enemy: freshwater invaders hybridising in South African waters
Schematic illustrating the hybridization between smallmouth and largemouth bass in the invaded Olifants River system. Viable F1 hybrids are produced when smallmouth bass provide the sperm and largemouth bass provide the eggs. These F1 hybrids, in turn, can mate, with either parental species, resulting in a backcross – a hybrid that morphologically (size, shape, and structure of an organism or one of its parts) looks like the parent species, but who’s DNA has “pieces” of the other species incorporated. Alternatively, two F1 hybrids could reproduce, resulting in F2 hybrids.

Sleeping with the enemy: freshwater invaders hybridising in South African waters

A recent study published in the Journal of Fish Biology showed that not only is introgressive hybridisation between two notorious freshwater fish invaders possible, but continues to occur within an invaded South African river system.

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Read more about the article Hybridisation, Competition and Predation: threats to one species of Xenopus from another
The small Cape platanna, Xenopus gilli, is Endangered in its small range in the Western Cape (Photo credit: John Measey)

Hybridisation, Competition and Predation: threats to one species of Xenopus from another

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.

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Insights on invasions from down under

Invasive plants compete with native plants for important resources like water and nutrients, often outcompeting or even causing local extinction of indigenous plants. Australian acacias are one such group of plants in South Africa...

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