Messing with Texas, and more...

A few good articles have shown up today:

• From the Environment News Service, details of a report just released by the Union of Concerned Scientists, outlining the impact of invasive species on the state of Texas.
• Also from ENS, this report about a study in the journal Ecology. Results of the study indicate that areas subject to frequent flooding have more non-native plants. You can read the abstract here.
• From BBC News, this article about the economic and ecological costs of non-native species introduced into Africa. One perspective not mentioned in the article is the potential usefulness of some of the invasives, like water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). You can read the full press release from the World Conservation Union (IUCN), which produced an educational booklet on the subject, by clicking here (.pdf file).
• Finally, from the journal Nature, two short articles about the enemy release hypothesis, demonstrating that non-native organisms tend to have fewer "enemies" associated with them when compared to native species. One article is about plant pathogens (fungi, smut and the like), the other is about parasites on animals. You'll need a subscription (or a library with one) to read more than the first paragraph.

Thanks to members of the ALIENS-L listerserver and Woody for providing information about these articles.