When a plant species spreads beyond its habitat, it is usually seen as a threat to native flora and fauna. But what happens when that same species is struggling to survive in its original range? A new study published in New Phytologist and led by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv),…
Police who raided a national park guesthouse earlier this month aimed not to bust elephant tusk or rhino horn poachers but a more esoteric ring trading a much smaller, more lucrative item by weight. This was an ant smuggling ring. Two Belgian teenagers were arrested for wildlife trafficking at Jane Guesthouse in Naivasha, Kenya on…
This Collective Article compiles information on nineteen (19) species recorded in seven (7) Mediterranean countries (Croatia, Cyprus, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Syria, and Türkiye) and across four major sub-basins (Adriatic, Western, Central, and Eastern Mediterranean). The documented taxa represent eight (8) phyla: Annelida (four species), Arthropoda (three), Bryozoa (one), Chordata (two), Cnidaria (two), Mollusca (five), Chlorophyta…
Several ornamental species have demonstrated adaptive features that could increase their resilience to the current climate emergency but could also be linked to invasiveness in non-native environments. The present review examines the responses of ornamental plants’ grown in the Mediterranean region to relevant abiotic stress conditions such as drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, heavy metal toxicity,…
In this work, combined efforts by Greek and Turkish scientists produced an updated validated NIS inventory of the Aegean ecoregion, covering 120 years of records up to August 2024. Of the 342 NIS currently present in the Aegean Sea, the majority (281 species) have invaded the South Aegean, followed by the North Aegean (128 species…
The eastern Mediterranean Sea has suffered severe impacts from climate change, causing the decline of native biodiversity. Based on a global systematic review, we found that climate change has been the main driver of local extinctions globally since the 1990s; the eastern Mediterranean is flagged as an extinction hotspot. This region is also a bioinvasions…
Recently, the number of alien arthropods found in the Mediterranean basin has increased considerably. This phenomenon occurred especially in the milder climate areas of the southern sector. In this context, citrus and olive groves see their productions and even their existence at risk. In the last three decades, the increased number of allochthonous species introduced…
Science tells us invasive species — like the spotted tilapia — are always on the move, making it difficult for scientists to simulate their spread and predict where they will go next. Researchers at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences took a deep dive to understand why certain locations are more…
Back in 2016, one of us (Silviu Petrovan) was asked to identify a live frog found in a shipment of roses in Sheffield, England. It certainly wasn’t any species found in Europe: Silviu thought he had been pranked. But with help from Ecuadorian and Colombian scientists, he was soon able to identify it as a…
Computer models developed by the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory predict that hotter, drier conditions in North America will limit the growth of a fungus that normally curbs the spread of the spongy moth, an invasive species that has caused millions of dollars in damage to forests. The research, published in Nature Climate…