Darwin’s finches threatened by invasive nest maggots in the Galapagos Islands

Contents of a Darwin’s finch nest: dead nestlings with larval feeding wounds surrounded by parasitic larvae of the introduced fly Philornis downsi. As mentioned in another entry on this blog a few weeks ago, 2010 has been declared International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations. Continuing this theme, here is a guest entry by…
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Invasive plant to meet its match

Today sees an important milestone in a CABI project, led by Dr Dick Shaw. Defra gave the go-ahead to release an insect, a psyllid, to stop the spread of the non-native invasive plant, Japanese Knotweed. 
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Ask our invasive expert a question today

Arne Witt is the coordinator for Invasive Species at CABI Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya. Arne is responsible for coordinating all CABI activities associated with Invasive Alien Species (IAS) on the African continent. He is also the current International Project Coordinator for the UNEP-GEF project, “Removing Barriers to Invasive Plant Management in Africa”. You can…
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The UN ask an expert programme – Invasive Species Q&A transcript

I was catching up on my reading of invasive species blogs during my coffee-break this morning, so unfortunately this is now a historical post, but still worth checking out. Jennifer Forman Orth over at the Invasive Species Weblog noticed that it was "Ask an Expert" Invasives Day on the 4th and 5th March over at…
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Could new biofuel crops become invasive?

    According to a blog I read in the New York Times (NYT) online this could be the case. Following evidence that biofuel crops compete with food crops, defenders of farm grown crops say the eventual goal is to shift away from sources like maize toward plants harvested for their cellulose, which would end…
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