Biology in the News Explained

Anti-terrorism policies take money away from invasive species prevention

Few people realize that biosecurity funding put in place after 2001 was at the expense of protecting our borders from another major threat to our society: invasive species.

The fight against invasive species is not all about short-term benefit for humans

Protecting unique native ecosystems against homogenization by invasive species is a campaign by xenophobes to demonize the "other." It is about recognizing both that biodiversity has value apart from the human perspective, and value to humans too.

“Job-killing”: the new shorthand for any measure to protect long-term economic or environmental health

It's official: Any environmental regulations -- or any regulations favoring long term conservation or economic stability for all at the expense of maximized short term profits for a few individuals -- are "job-killing", and therefore an evil liberal plot.

Carnival round-up

Carnivals on education, politics, opinions, and science are all out, with some posts by Bioblog.

The food on your table might create more invasive species

Native predators, some of which humans like to eat, might be helping to eat us out of an invasive species jam. Does that mean that we should modify harvest limits?

Rational decision making

It would be great to live in a world in which we make decisions as consumers (and as governments) based on a rational cost-benefit analysis, rather than knee-jerk ideology.

Climate change + fire suppression = ecological disaster?

The devastation we are seeing now from mountain pine beetle in northwest forests could be a result of the combination of bad fire policy and climate change.

Keep the invasives out of your communities

"Invasive species" come in many forms.

Predator-avoidance behavior in smoke alarms

On invasive coqui frogs and beeping smoke alarms.

We need biological control agents that work

The field of biological control is currently dominated by a focus on nontarget impacts by biocontrol agents. When will biocontrol scientists start caring about effectiveness too?

Plant (non-invasive) trees this Arbor Day

The Arbor Day Foundation needs to focus its efforts on promoting local tree species.

More on the western “drought”

Whether the western "drought" is a new phenomenon or a reversion back to the way things were, it is likely here to stay.