Invasive species can capitalise on disturbances like this.
FJAH / shutterstock
Non-native species tend to be better at exploiting the disturbance caused by storms, fires or droughts.
John Keane on an extensive urchin barren.
John Keane
Controlling invasive sea urchins is expensive. Why not make it profitable by fishing for them and selling their roe as a delicacy?
Smuggled rare Mexican box turtles intercepted by U.S. officials at the Port of Memphis.
USFWS
More than half of the world’s turtle species are endangered or threatened, and overhunting of wild species is a major cause.
The Peach Blossom Jellyfish (Craspedacusta sowerbii) is native to China and an invasive species in Canada.
(Florian Lüskow)
The Peach Blossom Jellyfish is an invasive species in Canada, and a lack of data is hampering efforts to control populations.
Fishermen turning a boat on Lake Victoria in Kenya. The lake is covered by the aquatic plant water hyacinth.
Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
The new report on alien invasive species doesn’t just concentrate on problems. It also offers solutions.
The yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) is a notorious invasive ant species.
Lukman_M/Shutterstock
Invasive ants are a major threat to biodiversity, according to a study.
The Asian hornet is a species of hornet indigenous to south-east Asia.
ThomasLENNE/Shutterstock
Invasive Asian hornets are a top predator of bees in the UK – and sightings are starting to soar.
Invasive zebra mussels colonize a rock at Lewis and Clark Lake in Yankton, S.D.
Sam Stukel, USFWS/Flickr
According to a new UN report, invasive species do more than US$423 billion in damage worldwide every year. Four articles explore examples, from mollusks to poisonous fish.
Native to South and Central America, cane toads are an invasive species in most regions they have been introduced.
Seregraff/Shutterstock
Modern ecosystems are very different to how they were just a few centuries ago.
Alexander Wild/Wikimedia Commons
Australia’s biosecurity system is on high alert for alien invaders. Here’s a hit list of eight baddies we believe pose the greatest threat to Australia’s biodiversity.
Lionfish are an invasive species in the Caribbean.
Drew McArthur/Shutterstock
Not all alien species are a significant hazard to people and ecosystems.
Avigator Fortuner. Shutterstock
Alien invaders are penetrating the borders of every country in the world. Now the full extent of the problems and potential solutions have been exposed, in a new United Nations report.
Australian lace-lid treefrog.
Geoff Heard
Introduced species and diseases can drive native species into smaller environmental niches – and that could mean change to how we work to conserve them.
Bruce Webber
Mathematical models, video games and experiments with ants can all further our understanding of the dynamics of war.
Posnov / Getty Images
Despite their solitary lifestyle, wombats are at risk from a disease that spreads via their burrows.
Tim Gainey/Alamy Stock Photo
Plantations of exotic trees from the mid-19th century onwards devastated Indian ecosystems.
Bush rat eating a beetle.
Larney Grenfell/iNaturalist
What happens when wild native bush rats meet cockroaches they’ve never seen before?
James Dorey
Feral honeybees have become a major problem in Australia. It’s time to develop effective and practical control measures.
Fish in a kelp forest off San Benito Island, Mexico.
Photo by Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Humans rely on the ocean for food, jobs and other resources, but these systems are being stressed to the brink.
An invasive lionfish at Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico.
G. P. Schmahl/NOAA
One of the most damaging invasive species in the oceans has breached a major barrier – the Amazon-Orinoco river plume – and is spreading along Brazil’s coast. Scientists are trying to catch up.