Invasive Species - What's New on NISIC's Site

People ship and receive packages using express courier companies—like FedEx, UPS, DHL, and others—all the time. But when the package includes an agricultural item, things could get dangerous for U.S agriculture and natural resources.

“You should know what could be hitchhiking in or on those items—invasive plant and animal diseases and pests,” said Dr. Mark Davidson, Deputy Administrator of USDA’s Plant Protection and Quarantine. “Once these threats enter our country, they could harm our crops, livestock, and ecosystems. Left unchecked, they could devastate entire agricultural industries, eliminating jobs, threatening our food supply, and costing billions of dollars in losses and response costs.”

Beach leaf disease was first observed in Ohio in 2012. It's means of introduction is unknown, although it may have arrived in North America through the transport of wood with an invertebrate vector. It causes a disease of beech trees that disfigures leaves and can lead to tree mortality. 

The African clawed frog was first discovered in California in 1968. It was imported for laboratory research and the pet trade. This species can negatively impact native amphibian and fish populations.

After three years without confirmed detections, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have declared the northern giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) eradicated from Washington and the United States.
See also: APHIS in Action: Victory Over the World's Largest Hornet Species (Dec 18, 2024) [usda.gov]

As communities continue to recover from widespread destruction caused by recent hurricanes Helene and Milton, floodwaters from these storms may have accelerated the spread of invasive wildlife and plant species into new areas.

Science conducted by the USGS and the White-nose Syndrome (WNS) Response Team. Our scientists are tracking the fungus as it spreads and characterizing the effects of WNS on hibernating bat populations in North America.

ITP, in collaboration with Pollinator Partnership, is pleased to release The BeeMD at idtools.org. The BeeMD will help beekeepers and others concerned with bees quickly identify honey bee health issues (including colony collapse disorder), through an interactive, visually rich, informative, and easy to use website. This release includes much of the content from the original website first published in 2016. On this new platform, the “visual key” has been completely restructured and streamlined, and the entire website redesigned and expanded, offering additional informational, visual, and supportive content.

The soybean cyst nematode, an invasive parasite that attacks soybean roots – causes over $1 billion of damage each year in the U.S. Harnessing beneficial fungi that target these nematodes could be a solution. Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are stepping up their efforts to control agricultural pests, without the use of chemical pesticides. One promising solution are fungi carried by the pests themselves in a symbiotic relationship.

Terrestrial invasive plants are expected to shift their ranges in response to changing climate. This tool provides lists of terrestrial invasive plants expected to expand their ranges into the chosen county or state with climate change by 2040-2060. Users can filter the list to species currently observed within a chosen geographic proximity to the focal county or state.

A web application displaying visual and statistical summaries of nationwide habitat suitability models for manager identified invasive plant species. INHABIT is a dataset containing the potential distribution of 259 invasive terrestrial plant species across the contiguous U.S.

This project is one among a set of coordinated projects funded (wholly or partially) by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through the US Department of the Interior to advance a nationally coordinated Early Detection and Rapid Response Framework.

Citation: Jarnevich, C.S., Engelstad, P., Williams, D.A., Shadwell, K.S., Reimer, C.J., Henderson, G.C., Prevéy, J.S., and Pearse, I.S., 2024, INHABIT species potential distribution across the contiguous United States (ver. 4.0, June 2024): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P14HNEJF.