How a wasp might save the Christmas Island red crab

By Stephanie Dittrich. Reblogged from Island Conservation. Invasive crazy ants threaten Christmas Island Red Crab populations, but a certain species of wasp might be able to help. Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, is known for an abundance of Red Crabs, a species once recorded in numbers nearing 44 million. The Red…
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Not Just Maize: Africa’s Fall Armyworm Crisis Threatens Sorghum, Other Crops, Too

By Sara Hendery. Reblogged from Entomology Today. Scientists from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Niger say that 99 percent of the media and research coverage on the fall armyworm focuses on the invasive pest’s deadly threat to maize.
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Indian farmers using smartphones to fight fast-moving crop killer

By Eric Marx. Reblogged from Ethical Corporation. Plantix is a diagnostic app that uses image recognition software and AI. It is being used to halt the advance of the fall armyworm pest. An app that uses artificial intelligence to identify plant disease is being deployed in India as an early-warning system to stop the advance…
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Largest Invasive Alien Plant dataset is now published online!

By Samantha Garvin. Reblogged from JRS Biodiversity Foundation. CABI has published one of the most complete and current datasets on Invasive Alien Plants (IAP) in East and Southern Africa. This extraordinary dataset is already being translated into new research findings and conservation action on the ground.
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Tackle invasive species to restore degraded landscapes

By Gilbert Nakweya Reblogged from SciDev.Net Invasive alien species should not be used in restoring degraded landscapes as their costs outweigh their benefits, experts say. Invasive alien species, according to the Convention on Biological Diversity, are plants, animals and other organisms that are non-native to an ecosystem, and may adversely affect human health and the…
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Invasive alien plants, land degradation and restoration

Reblogged from Global Landscapes Forum Invasive alien plants contribute to land degradation by forming vast unproductive monocultures. These invasions have a negative impact on biodiversity, water resources, crop and pasture production, human and animal health, and as such undermine Africa’s ability to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals. Landscapes degraded as a result of unsustainable land-use…
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Invasive Species Are Riding on Plastic Across the Oceans

Reblogged from National Geographic We know plastics are as plentiful in parts of the open ocean as they are in our everyday lives. But, until recently, scientists didn’t consider that such debris could also be carrying a new wave of invasive species to the shores of the United States. Now they’re finding that not only is…
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A crisis is a terrible thing to waste

Reblogged from AGRF Last year, the Fall armyworm destroyed swathes of agricultural production across Africa, devastating maize crops in more than 40 countries and placing at risk the food security and livelihoods of some 300 million people.
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