Invasive species of plants have a knack for settling in new settings and making big changes to an ecosystem, even leading to extinctions of native species.
Invasive species of plants have a knack for settling in new settings and making big changes to an ecosystem, even leading to extinctions of native species.
Assistant Research Professor in UConn’s Institute of the Environment Julissa Rojas-Sandoval explains that invasive plants are non-native species that have been introduced into new areas generally as a result of human activities, and that they are actively spreading, causing harm to the environment, the economy, and human health. Invasive plants may have significant long-term implications for the conservation of native biodiversity, but to combat the problem, we need to know which plants are invasive, where they’re from, and how they got there.
Rojas-Sandoval leads an international collaboration including researchers from all Central American countries, working together to compile the most comprehensive databases of invasive plant species in Central America. The collaboration is called FINCA: Flora Introduced and Naturalized in Central America, and their first paper was published this week in Biological Invasions.
The collaboration arose to meet a need, says Rojas-Sandoval. “While we have a good understanding of the processes and mechanisms of plant invasions in temperate regions, there is a huge gap in our knowledge about biological invasions in the tropics, and this lack of information is limiting our ability to respond to invasive plants.”
Read more at University of Connecticut
Image: Invasive plants are invading all major ecosystems across Central America compromising the conservation of native species. (Courtesy of Julissa Rojas-Sandoval)
