Red and grey squirrel genomes could hold the key to the survival of reds in Britain and Ireland
New hope for the preservation of red squirrels in Britain and Ireland is on the horizon, after the completion of the red and grey squirrel reference genomes by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators. The genomes may hold clues to why grey squirrels are immune to squirrel pox, a disease that is…
New TR4 Portal on the Invasive Species Compendium
At the end of 2019, a new species portal was added to CABI’s Invasive Species Compendium (ISC) to bring together information and data related to Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense tropical race 4, more commonly known as TR4. This portal, which is Open Access and available to all, brings together data on the current distribution, the…
Weed biological control: Challenges and opportunities
Michael Day and Arne Witt have just published ‘Weed biological control: Challenges and opportunities’ in the first edition of a new journal, Journal of Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society. Their paper traces the history of weed biological control and points to the many successes.
Eucalyptus – the ‘thirsty’ trees threatening to ‘drink’ South Africa dry
Eucalyptus species are widely grown and utilized throughout much of the world, Dr Arne Witt reports. They are a valuable source of timber, fuelwood, paper, nectar, etc. and as such often grown in woodlots and plantations. However, many of these introduced species have escaped cultivation and become invasive.
New study: current resource use in areas of increasing prosopis cover is unsustainable
By Dr Urs Schaffner, Head Ecosystems Management In a newly-published paper in the journal Ecosystems Services: ‘The impact of invasive species on social-ecological systems: Relating supply and use of selected provisioning ecosystem services’, CABI scientists joined an international team of researchers who, in respect of the invasive weed prosopis, conducted the first study that integrates…
CABI shares expertise on highly noxious and invasive parthenium weed at international conference on climate smart agriculture
By Dr Kazam Ali, Biocontrol Research Officer – CABI Central and West Asia (CWA) International conferences are priceless opportunities, not only for researchers and scientists but also for experts, policy makers, stakeholders and students, to ‘sharpen your saw’ by learning new skills in a different environment.
Meet the man behind the headlines: The ‘Stink Bug Man’ Dr Tim Haye
Tim Haye spends a lot of his time behind the lens of a microscope or camera studying and capturing a range of invasive pests – largely unseen to the human eye. Recently Tim has been the focus of attention himself with the Swiss media keen on learning more about one of his ‘bugbears’ – the…
Traded forest tree seeds pose a great risk of introducing harmful pest, new research shows
CABI has led an international team of scientists who strongly suggest that the global trade of forest tree seeds is not as safe as previously believed, with insect pests and fungal pathogens posing a great risk to trees and forest ecosystems worldwide. Non-native insect pests and fungal pathogens present one of the major threats to…
Continuing the biological fight against a hardy foe – the maize-devastating western corn rootworm
CABI is continuing the fight against the maize-devastating western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) by collecting more than 22,000 live specimens of this chrysomelid beetle for further research into its biological control. Dr Stefan Toepfer has been busy in the maize fields of southern Hungary gathering the insects, which, of Mexican origin, have invaded many maize…
Collaborative effort in Kenya to manage the impact of scale insect in coastal region
By Fernadis Makale, CABI Scale insects – such as the coffee mealybug and cassava mealybug – are some of the least studied group of invertebrates in East Africa. However, a collaborative effort has been made to address the threat they pose to smallholder farmers: despite their cross-cutting status as pests in all plant groups, crops,…