Invasive species are non-native organisms that establish self-sustaining populations and spread beyond their initial introduction sites, causing or likely to cause significant ecological, economic, or health impacts. Research on invasive species examines pathways of introduction, propagule pressure, life-history traits that facilitate invasion (e.g., high reproductive rate, broad ecological tolerance), and interactions with native communities, including competition, predation, hybridization, and pathogen transmission. The topic also encompasses invasion stages (transport, introduction, establishment, spread), invasion ecology theory (e.g., enemy release, biotic resistance), risk assessment, and management strategies such as prevention, early detection, rapid response, and long-term control or eradication.
For decades, ecologists have known that how a species looks or eats affects its environment. But a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows that social behavior related to mating can be ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 11, 2026
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More than 40% of extant large freshwater animals (megafauna), including carp, salmonids, crocodilians, turtles, beavers, and hippopotamuses, have been deliberately introduced outside their natural range, often for economic ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 9, 2026
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A thin band of light from Cristian Lucanas's headlamp pierces the blackness of a Philippine rainforest as he digs through the underbrush before gently scooping up a cockroach with his bare hands.
Plants & Animals
Mar 8, 2026
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Trust in others and prior experience with feral hogs were significant factors in whether landowners would commit effort and dollars to controlling the destructive animals, two studies have found.
Plants & Animals
Mar 6, 2026
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When Vasilis Rodovitis rips open his brown paper bag in a sunny persimmon orchard just outside Naousa, in Greece, I half expect groceries to spill out. Instead, a barely there gray cloud emerges. For half a week, the bag ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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When a coastal carpet python was brought into a wildlife hospital in South East Queensland in August 2024, vets were confronted with something they didn't recognize. The python had damaged scales, crusted lesions across its ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 4, 2026
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A provocative new international study published in Austral Ecology warns the massive "broadcast baiting" campaign currently used to combat Red Imported Fire Ants (RIFA) in south-east Queensland may be doing more harm than ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2026
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Even though farmers have been dealing with rice stink bugs as pests since the 1880s, entomologists are still getting to know them at the genetic level. A first-of-its-kind study published on the genetics of rice stink bugs ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 28, 2026
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59
A newly published study co-authored by University of South Florida alum Louis Coticchio and USF integrative biologist Deby Cassill challenges long-standing assumptions about the brown recluse spider, finding the species is ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 26, 2026
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University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers identified 10 new species and seven new groups (genera) of Hawaiian leaf-roller moths. While new species are frequently discovered, the description of a new genus of insects is a ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 25, 2026
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