Resource Search 1 | National Invasive Species Information Center

Aug 23, 2022
USDA. FS. Research and Development.
Assays of environmental DNA — traces of genetic material found in air, soil, and water — may improve scientists’ ability to detect bat roosts and track the spread of white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by a killer fungus spread easily in the close quarters of hibernacula. In this research, scientists experienced success in detecting bats in field collected samples of environmental DNA, though the technology is still in the experimental stage.

Mar 4, 2022
DOI. United States Geological Survey.
United States Geological Survey Science is Refining eDNA Techniques and Developing New Applications. Research by the U.S. Geological Survey is leading to new techniques in the use of environmental DNA, or eDNA, to detect invasive species and their spread.

International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
The Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT) is the IUCN global standard for measuring the severity of environmental impacts caused by animals, fungi and plants living outside their natural range. This tool alerts scientists, conservation practitioners and policy makers to the potential consequences of alien species, guides the development of prevention and mitigation measures, and assists in the prioritisation of management actions.

Feb 2019
UN. FAO. International Plant Protection Convention.
You cannot protect the environment without also safeguarding plant health. When plant pests and diseases spread into new areas they seriously damage entire ecosystems, putting at risk biological diversity and the environment itself. Tiny and lethal at the same time, plant pests and invasive alien species have been recently identified as the main driver of biodiversity loss. Pests are also responsible for losses of up to USD 220 billion in agricultural trade each year and the loss of 40 percent of the global food crop production. Climate change is making the situation even worse. It is changing the life cycle of pests – sometimes increasing the number of yearly generations - and creating new niches where they can thrive. For more information see the IPPC factsheet "Plant Health and Environmental Protection [PDF, 1.22 MB]".

Mar 28, 2013
Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA issued a final vessel general permit (VGP) regulating vessel discharges from commercial vessels, including ballast water, to protect the nation's waters from ship-borne pollutants and reduce invasive species in U.S. waters. The permit imposes international cleanliness standards that the Coast Guard also adopted in regulations it issued last year.

Note: On December 4, 2018, President Trump signed into law the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018, which includes as Title IX the Vessel Incident Discharge Act of 2018 (“VIDA”). The new regulations will replace the EPA’s 2013 Vessel General Permit (“VGP”). EPA first issued the Vessel General Permit (VGP) in 2008 and subsequently reissued it in 2013.