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The Global Invasive Species Team | |
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Global Invasive Species Team listserve digest #107 Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:55:40 PDT --CONTENTS-- 1. Spread of Cactoblastis cactorum moth (Caribbean, North America) 2. Pulling Together Initiative grants available (Nationwide, USA) 3. Sea Grant Proposals Opening (Nationwide, USA) 4. Lovegrass and weed displays (California, USA) 5. Spread of Sudden Oak Death (California, USA) 6. Trish Klahr on the air (Idaho, USA) 7. Literature reviews (Global) 8. More literature reviews (Global) --------------------------------------- 1. Spread of Cactoblastis cactorum moth (Caribbean, North America) From: Doria Gordon (dgordon(at)botany.ufl.edu) The cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum, known best as a biological control success in places like Australia and South Africa, is now established in North America and the Caribbean where it poses a critical threat to the vast biodiversity of native prickly pear cacti. If you have any Opuntia species in your area, please look for egg sticks of the moth laid on the ends of cactus spines (looking very much like spines). Also look for the larvae, which are bright orange with orange spots or lines. The larvae burrow into and then hollow out cactus pads. The adult moth is much less easy to identify. See pictures at: http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/bfly/cactus_moth.htm and http://linus.socs.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/pyra/cactor.html. Please Help! If you know of or find infestations in your area, particularly if the sites are inland or in front of the leading edge, please contact: Dr. Stephen Hight Tel.: 850-412-7262; Fax: 850-412-7263; hight(at)nettally.com. The moth is native to northern Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil. Its larvae feed on many species of Opuntia cactus, primarily from the subgenus Platyopuntia. Opuntias are a diverse group in North America, with many endemics. There are 31 likely host Opuntia species for the moth across the U.S. (9 endemic), and 56 in Mexico (38 endemic). According to Britton and Rose (1963), there are 22 native species of Platyopuntia in the Caribbean and 17 in Central America. Cactoblastis cactorum was first recorded in the Florida Keys in 1989, where it has already significantly reduced the native prickly pears. Since then it has moved northward up the coastline of Florida, and is moving rapidly around the Gulf Coast. As of July 2002, the moth has been documented to be as far north as Charleston, SC along the Atlantic coast and as far northwest as Alligator Point, FL (south of Tallahassee, FL and about 200 miles east of the Alabama state line) along the Gulf coast. We do not know the range limits of the moth in more inland areas. USDA researchers are working to develop a sterile male release program that might be used to slow or contain its distribution. However, USDA needs to understand its distribution so that they can act quickly when the technique is fully developed. Until that time, we may need to manually protect rare Opuntia species by removing the egg sticks and infested pads. --------------------------------------- 2. Pulling Together Initiative grants available (Nationwide, USA) From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu) The 2003 National Fish & Wildlife Foundation's Pulling Together Initiative (PTI) Request for Proposals has been released. PTI encourages federal agencies to partner with state and local agencies, private landowners, and other interested parties in developing long-term, integrated pest management strategies for invasive species control. The grants typically range from $25,000 to $30,000. PTI grants are "matching funds" grants, so you must raise at least an equivalent amount of "challenge funds" from non-federal sources. The more you raise beyond this 1:1 ratio of matching funds to challenge funds, the more competitive your grant proposal will be. The proposal deadline is 6 November. For more information, including the proposal forms, point your web browser to: http://tncinvasives.ucdavis.edu/newsnotes.html --------------------------------------- 3. Sea Grant Proposals Opening (Nationwide, USA) From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu) The draft text of the upcoming request for proposals for the Sea Grant Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) Research and Outreach Program is now available online, although the grant competition is not yet open. Depending on the date that this request for proposals is published, proposals are expected to be due about September 15, 2002. The Aquatic Nuisance Species Program seeks to fund research and outreach projects for the prevention and control of introduction and spread of aquatic nuisance species. For more information, point your web browser to: http://www.nsgo.seagrant.org/research/nonindigenous http://www.nsgo.seagrant.org/research/rfp/index.html --------------------------------------- 4. Lovegrass and weed displays (California, USA) From: Nelroy E. Jackson (nelroy.e.jackson(at)monsanto.com) Regarding posting #106: I think that Vandenburg Air Force Base tackled lovegrass (Eragrostis lehmanniana) 15 years ago. Roundup at the right timing should control it postemergence, before viable seeds are produced. I do think that I know the broom, but Roundup at 2% V/V is always a good treatment to try. Steve Schoenig (sschoenig(at)cdfa.ca.gov) at California Dept. of Food and Agriculture can give you a lot of great examples of displays from Weed Management Areas. --------------------------------------- 5. Spread of Sudden Oak Death (California, USA) From: Ann Bartuska (abartuska(at)tnc.org) New evidence indicates that the pathogen responsible for sudden oak death has scientists worried that limiting the spread of the pathogen may be more difficult than previously thought. Scientists have learned that the fungus present in soils, streams, and in many other plants and trees, although it doesn't always kill them. Scientists have also learned the pathogen moves easily from place to place. A recent test at a Santa Cruz Mountains park found that nine out of 10 hikers leaving the park had the microbe on their shoes. For more information concerning sudden oak death, visit the SAF website at http://www.safnet.org/archive/502_oakdeath.htm. http://www.safnet.org/archive/202_oakdeath.htm. http://www.safnet.org/archive/oak901.htm. http://www.safnet.org/archive/oak301.htm. --------------------------------------- 6. Trish Klahr on the air (Idaho, USA) From: John Randall (jarandall(at)ucdavis.edu) You can hear (TNC-Idaho's) Trish Klahr talking weeds as part of the story broadcast on NPR. National Public Radio's Jyl Hoyt interviewed the Conservancy's Trish Klahr (and others) for a piece about weed invasions in Hells canyon, partnerships, remote sensing, etc. used to control the weeds. The feature aired August 7 on Oregon Public Broadcasting. To listen, on your computer (RealAudio or MP3 format) click here: http://radio.boisestate.edu/HoytAudio/HoytAudio.htm --------------------------------------- 7. Literature reviews (Global) From: Tunyalee Martin (tamorisawa(at)ucdavis.edu) Reitz, S.R. and J.T. Trumble. 2002. Competitive displacement among insects and arachnids. Annual Review of Entomology 47:435-465. This paper reviews 48 cases of competitive displacement, discussing the mechanisms involved. The authors first defined competitive displacement as "the removal of a formerly established species from a habitat through superior use, acquisition, or defense of resources by another species." They then get into the meat of the review by summarizing 8 general mechanisms of how displacement can occur: 1. differential resource acquisition: the ability to obtain resources 2. differential female fecundity: the ability to produce females 3. differential searching ability: the ability to locate and exploit resources 4. resource preemption: a greater ability to use resources before a competitor 5. resource degradation: competitor degrades resource before another can use it 6. agonistic interference competition: contests with the winner getting the resource 7. reproductive interference: less selectivity for mating versus a species with greater selectivity leads to less fecundity in the species with greater selectivity 8. intraguild predation: predation at the same trophic level They also noted that several factors could mediate the severity of the displacement. The bulk of the review described cases where competitive displacement was observed. Cases involved predators and parasitoids, phytophages (plant sucking insects, beetles and flies), medically important species (mosquitoes and flies), social hymenoptera (ants, yellow jackets and honey bees), and arachnids (spiders and mites). Displacements were observed at all trophic levels. Fifty five percent of the cases were exotic species displacing another exotic. Native species were displaced by exotics in 33% of the cases and by another native in 14% of the cases. Half of the cases involved a displacement between species within the same genus. Others involved different genera, families, or orders. Multiple species were also displaced by one species. Many of the cases were observed in agroecosystems or anthropogenically disturbed habitats and synanthropic environments. The impact of competitive displacement can vary, but typically lead to losses of biodiversity, reduced species richness, disturbed insect-plant mutualisms (pollination, seed dispersal), and reduced effectiveness of biological control programs. Possible evolutionary consequences included the evolution of superior competitive abilities, adaptations to new environmental conditions, speciation, and hybridization. --------------------------------------- 8. More literature reviews (Global) From: John Randall (jarandall(at)ucdavis.edu) **Articles on Phragmites strains: Saltonstall, K. 2002. Cryptic invasion by a non-native genotype of Phragmites australis into North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 99(4): 2445-2449. This paper provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that a non-native genotype of Phragmites was introduced to North America and spread aggressively across the continent in the past 100+ years. Although Phragmites australis is known to be native to much of North America, in recent decades it has been aggressively invading coastal and inland wetlands, particularly in the northeast, southeast and upper midwest. This has prompted speculation about whether this aggressiveness is the result of changed environmental conditions or the result of the introduction of an aggressive genotype from somewhere else in the world. Kristin Saltonstall carried out the research described in this paper to determine whether or not non-native strains of Phragmites can be found in North America. She examined the sequencing of two chloroplast DNA markers from samples of Phragmites collected from 238 modern samples collected in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America and from 62 North American herbarium samples colllected before 1910. She found found a total of 27 haplotypes among the modern samples. A cluster of 11 haplotypes were present only in her North American samples and are considered to be native to the continent. These 11 haplotypes all share 5 insertion-deletion mutations which none of the other 16 haplotypes have. Another haplotype, which she designated M, was the most abundant in modern North American samples and is also found in Europe and Africa. Haplotype M was found in a few pre-1910 samples from southern New England but it was the only haplotype found in this area and along much of the Atlantic seaboard in the modern samples. Three native North American haplotypes found in southern New England in the pre-1910 samples were not present in modern samples taken from the same locations and one them, haplotype AA, was not found in any of the modern samples. Yet another haplotype, designated I, was found in pre 1910 and modern samples from along the US Gulf Coast and in modern samples from South America. Saltonstall was careful, however, to state that her data does not prove haplotype M is non-native since it was present in a few samples taken from herbarium sheets dating from before 1910. However, she notes that the evidence strongly suggests haplotype M that it was introduced to North America following European settlement for at least three reasons: 1.) haplotype M has none of the 5 mutations that all 11 of the exclusively North American share; 2.) haplotype M is most closely related to other EurAsian types; 3.) population structuring and genetic diversity have declined significantly between pre-1910 samples and modern North American samples. These declines are due to the spread of haplotype M across the continent and the loss of some native haplotypes from New England sites now populated exclusively with haplotype M plants. Saltonstall suggests that haplotype M was likely introduced to the eastern seaboard in the early 1800s and that its rapid srepad across the continent in the 1900s was facilitated by human activities which disturbed wetlands and provided railway, canal and highway corridors for dispersal. You can see a periodically updated summary of this ongoing work and download an adobe version of this paper and related articles from Kristin Saltonstall's website: http://pantheon.yale.edu/~salt/ The site also has a table with summary data on all the specimens used in the research described above; by my count at least 10 TNC sites from 9 U.S. states were represented among the many samples used! Morphological differences between Phragmites haplotypes detected Bernd Blossey and colleagues at Cornell University in NY state have found what appear to be a suite of fairly consistent morphological differences between the 11 North American haplotypes on the one hand, and haplotype M (the putative non-native) on the other that Kristin Saltonstall identified in her study. For example Blossey's observation indicate haplotype M characteristically has stems that are tan at the base and at nodes while the native types characteristically have stems that are purple or chestnut at the base and nodes. Haplotype M tends to have thicker, more robust stems which are rough to the touch and visibly ridged once the leaves have been pulled off while the native haplotypes have stems that are thin and very smooth. The picture is complicated by the fact that there are some differences between the native haplotypes and the researchers don't yet have enough samples of haplotype I, which is found along the U.S. Gulf Coast and South America, to determine whether it has distinctive characteristics. You can see a summary of the differences they have identified on their website: http://edweb.cornell.edu/invasiveplants/phragmites/phrag/morph.htm Blossey's lab continues to gather specimens from around the continent and encourages you to send in samples so that they can be genetically typed and their morphological characteristics checked against their table of characteristics to see if it holds true. They also interested in determining whether any populations of native haplotype plants remain in New England (so far only one has been found, on Block Island, RI) and will grow some specimens from different parts of the continent in a common garden to determine whether differences remain even when different haplotypes are grown side by side. Stems collected in the dormant season will also be used to assess differences in insect herbivores attacking native and introduced genotypes. They have preliminary evidence from stands in New York that the insect communities in introduced and native genotypes differ significantly. You'll benefit, too, by learning whether your sample is of the putative non-native haplotype or not. Instructions on how to collect, prepare and send samples will soon be posted at: http://edweb.cornell.edu/invasiveplants/phragmites/phrag/help.htm If you have questions or need instructions on sending a sample earlier, contact Bernd Blossey at bb22(at)cornell.edu. |
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