Singing Like A Bird

Not much posting going on here. For invasive species news in the style of the ISW but in succinct 140-character morsels, follow the ISW on Twitter at invasivespecies.

Twitterific

The ISW twitters breaking invasive species news. Want to be the first to know when something bad shows up? Follow the feed.

Post, Nuclear

The Post-Standard is reporting that zebra and quagga mussels (Dreissena polymorpha and D. bugensis) were indirectly responsible for the shut-down of a nuclear power plant on three different occasions last September and October. The James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York relies on water intake pipes from Lake Ontario, which is inhabited by both mussel species. While the official cause of the shutdowns was wave action leading to the clogging of the intake pipes with the green alga Cladophora, the mussels are being blamed for the proliferation of algae since 1) they don't eat it 2) their filtering abilities are clearing up the lake, allowing sunlight to reach lower depths and spurring the production of more Cladophora and 3) their waste products act as fertilizer to further enhance algae production. Plant workers have responded by enhancing the screens and other contraptions in place to keep the intake pipes clear.

Update: In related news, the mussels discovered late last year in the Pueblo Reservoir in Colorado have turned out to be zebra mussels - a new species for that state. (If you follow the ISW Twitter feed, you found that out about six hours ago.)

(Tip of the virtual hat to the Protect Your Waters website for linking to the power plant story.)

Toronto Gets The Green Blight

You may have noticed the little blurb in the ISW Twitter widget (middle of the left column on the front page) about the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) infestation reported in Toronto, Canada (read more about it from the Canada News Centre website). The boring beetles were discovered in ash trees about 60 miles (150 km) away from the current quarantine zone in the province of Ontario, and about 50 miles (125 km) from the recent sighting of the beetle in Turkey Point (see here). I've thrown together a quick and dirty Google Map to show you the details:

View Larger Map

As with the Turkey Point site, the Canadian government has instituted a new quarantine zone restricting the movement of ash lumber, nursery stock and wood products in a 3.1 mile (5 km) radius around the site where the Toronto EABs were found. Firewood from all tree species are also subject to the quarantine. As this FAQ points out, tree removal is no longer considered an effective way of managing EAB invasions, so local property owners are mostly safe...for now anyway.

Tip of the virtual hat to John at the Don Watcher for sending in a link to this story.

Weekend Blog Blogging

Recent rumblings in the blogosphere about invasive species:

• Invasive Notes has a good post about non-native soil. When you're done with that, an appropriate chaser would be the article about Bermuda's cricket field woes I pointed to last week in the Twitter feed.
• bootstrap analysis notes that the carp are comin' - in fact populations of Asian carp near Lake Michigan have doubled.
• The bioblog has an excellent post about the effectiveness of biological control agents.
• Walking the Berkshires has yet another good invasive plant post, this time about the black swallow-wort vine (Cynanchum louiseae) taking over Monhegan Island.
• The Lulu Island Blog put together a useful photoblogging post about purple loosestrife and plants that look a lot like loosestrife when they flower.
• bbum has a nice big post about a nasty little weed known as puncturevine (Tribulis terrestris).

Twittering

You might have noticed the recent addition of yet another widget to the ISW's front page: a Twitter badge. Sometimes there is breaking invasive species news that happens hours before I can give it the full-post treatment. Other times there are invasive species stories that don't merit a full post. From now on instead of just waiting or passing stories over, I'll push the best of them out through Twitter. You can see the latest four posts on this website, go directly to the ISW's Twitter page, subscribe to the feed, or sign up for Twitter and get the latest in invasive species "tweets" sent directly to your cell phone or instant message client...because when the emerald ash borer arrives in your state, you should be the first to know! :-)