Best Homework Ever!

Those lucky enough to be enrolled in Duke University must be fighting to get into Dr. Sandra Cooke's excellently titled class, "The Billion Dollar Problem of Aquatic Invasive Species." As part of the coursework, students are required to participate in a blog about aquatic invasives, where they've been posting about everything from Asian swamp eels to the war metaphor for invasive species. Check it out!

Weekend Blog Blogging

Some recent interesting invasive species posts in the blogosphere:

• Myrmecos Blog nicely covers the latest research on imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) from the journal PNAS. The researchers found that the ties between anthropogenic disturbance and the fire ants were strong, with intact forest patches remaining fire ant-free (thanks budak!).
• Huckleberry Days does introduced doves in British Colombia. Insightful words and some good photos, too.
• Living the Scientific Life has a great post about new research delving into the origins of the monk parrot (Myiopsitta monachus) invasion, with molecular evidence tying that invasion to the international pet trade.

Camel Trammel

Chuck over at Lounge of the Lab Lemming sent in a link to his recent pondering of the oddity that is the Australian feral camel (Camelus dromedarius). Introduced in the late 19th century, the camels have no natural predators, and are now being kept in check by human-designed population controls. The ISW has pondered this same topic several times before, but never live and in the flesh as Chuck has done. The ISW never arrived at the concept of camel curry either. Hmm...

Weekday Blog Blogging

Some good invasive species posts have popped up in the blogosphere of late:

• bootstrap analysis has summaries of two recently published papers about invasive plants, one featuring garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and the other featuring periwinkle (Vinca minor) - yes, periwinkle.
• The Lobster Fact Blog has a post about black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) rediscovered off the coast of North Carolina. This is the second sighting in as many years in that part of the Atlantic. I don't get whether the LFB is a splog or not, but this is the first I've heard of the tiger shrimp invasion, so I'll link to them. Who knows, maybe I'll get a lobster-gram ;-). Thanks to Deb H. for sending this one in!

Feeds You Need

It's Blogroll Amnesty Day. When you're done shedding all those old, unread blogs, why not pick up a nice new coat of shiny science blogs to try on? I've got a few suggestions below, the caveat being that I'm partial to blogs that offer full posts in their RSS feed, so those that force me to click through did not make the list:

• Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog. I love this blog and I'm not even sure why! It's so darn interesting to be reading about Golden Rice one day and the rediscovery of an ancient Cambodian pepper the next. The folks that run ABW are really good at rounding up relevant links.
• Niches. How Wayne manages to put up such large posts so regularly, I'll never know. But he's been doing it for years, posts spanning topics from ecology to climate change to his enduring battle with Japanese stiltgrass. Once Wayne went away on vacation and left up a link to a webcam which featured footage of several cats running around his house with knocked over tables and such. Good times.
• The Voltage Gate. The SciBlings don't really need any more publicity, but I couldn't help but mention TVG as one of my favorite reads. Great science writing, some great nature writing, and an odd affinity for World of Warcraft creatures. Really just great writing all around.
• The annotated budak. Go for the excellent photos, stay for the excellent nature blogging. Actually, budak posts on a variety of topics including arthropods, coastal ecosystems, and his travels. budak also send in lots of stories to the ISW so maybe I am a bit biased, but really, look at this velvet ant!

Any good-but-lesser-known science blogs I've missed? Post 'em in the comments.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past few weeks in invasive species-related posts, from around the blogosphere:

• Paul at The force that through... posts about a Brazilian pepper bush (Schinus terebinthifolius) he found at Disney World.
• A Snail's Eye View has an interesting post about the invasive white snail (Theba pisana) threatening agricultural crops in Australia.
• Speaking of snails (who knew there were so many snail-related blogs?), A Snail's Tale posts about some interspecific competition between cats and rats on an island off the coast of New Zealand.
• Butterflies of Singapore has some excellent photos of a lovely painted lady (Vanessa cardui). While the species has ac osmopolitan distribution (thanks chelydra), BoS questions whether the discovered specimens were bred and released, or perhaps escapees.
• Politician Glyn Davies has a View from Rural Wales, and that view is filled with invasive American grey squirrels.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species posts, from elsewhere in the blogosphere:

• Snail's Tales has a tale about discovering Japanese mystery snails in the Potomac River. (Thanks budak!)
• The Grinder, CHOW's foodie blog, posts about salmon farms in Chile.
• Over at National Geographic's NGC Blog, Elena Cruz gives folks a sneak peak of her upcoming feature called "Fishzilla! Snakehead Invasion." Hopefully it will be airing again this month because I missed it!

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past couple weeks in invasive species posts, from elsewhere in the blogosphere:

• Greg over at the Gondola Blog writes about his experiences discovering quagga mussels in Lake Las Vegas, Nevada and getting stopped for a boat inspection in California.
• Environmental graffiti posts "The 5 Worst Invasive Plants," a sequel to last month's "The 5 Worst Invasive Species in the World."
• Rock Paper Lizard has a post about gray squirrels run amok in the island city of Richmond, British Columbia.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species posts, from elsewhere in the blogosphere:

• In the same vein as this request from NPR's John Nielsen, Environmental graffiti lists "The 5 Worst Invasive Species in the World."
• From the appletree blog comes the sad story of a bird-watching aficionado facing criminal charges for killing a feral cat in Texas.
• The RoguePundit posts about feral horses in Australia.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species posts, from elsewhere in the blogosphere:

• Words & Pictures has an interesting post about American skunks discovered in the wild in the UK. I would think they'd be pretty low on the pet totem pole, but apparently not.
• Other bloggers had some fun with this ISW post about praying as a control method for invasive species. At bogalusa, you can read a great little poem. Drew at Drew's Brave New World suggests a new powerful acronym: WWKD (What Would Kudzu Do?). Someone put that on a bumper sticker, stat! :-)
• Fisher at the Luxury Gardens blog is a garden designer, but the questions he gets most frequently are about how to get rid of invasive plants.
• That Fish Blog has a post about lionfish, which they sell at That Fish Place but don't want you to ever release into the wild.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species posts, from elsewhere in the blogosphere:

• Sifolinia takes a break from ant blogging to pick up some Asian lady beetles, and ponders whether it is already a lost cause.
• Even more about the light brown apple moth, this time from 0tt's livejournal.
• Walking is Transportation posts about a new path that's as good for walkers as it is bad for invaders.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species blogging, from elsewhere on the internets:

• The House and other Arctic Musings is not happy that Cape May, prime birdwatching habitat, has recently decided to implement a Trap/Neuter/Release program for feral cats.
• Random Stew has a good summary of the Argentine ant problem.
• Botany Photo of the Day does seaweed.

Weekend Blog Blogging...

...let's just call it Long Weekend blog blogging...

The past week in invasive species posting, from elsewhere in the blogosphere:

• Whoa...black carp just got added to the U.S. Injurious Species list (the Lacey Act). Looks like the ISW has been seriously scooped by the sky blue waters report! This one's going into the Twitterer.
• Walking the Berkshires notes there's a new condominium development in Connecticut where the housing units have been christened "The Barberry," and ponders what the metaphor could be.
• Nan at Letter from a Hill Farm has dug up the invasive yellow flag irises in her yard - now let's see whether the seeds sprout new plants next year.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species blogging, elsewhere on the net:

• Blue Crab Boulevard has a post about the cane toads in Australia.
• Invasive Notes has a list of plants used as "biofuel" - it's a long one, and there are a lot of invasive species in there.
• View from here blogs about putting gray squirrels on the pill...yes, *that* pill.
• 10,000 Birds notes that Australia has a major Myna Problem.
• Garden in Bethlehem PA has a post about two common invasive shrubs in Pennsylvania.
• The sky blue waters report has a post about a very large bighead carp caught in a lake in southeastern Minnesota.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species via the rest of the blogosphere:

• Missouri Stream Team #2945 discovered evidence of someone dumping the contents of their aquarium in the Spring River...either that or Missouri's riverbeds have got naturally royal blue gravel :-).
• Hoosier Wordsmith muses about planting English ivy...and later unplanting it.
• The From the Field blog has a post about soil sampling as a way of learning more about the distribution of black and pale swallow-wort.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species posts, elsewhere in the blogosphere:

• Mapping the Marvellous has an interesting review of two recent invasive species-related art projects.
• I Can't Remember posts a review of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's book: Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants. Sounds like two enthusiastic thumbs up to me!

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species, via the rest of the blogosphere:

• The Urban Pantheist weighs in on the feral cat cookery in Australia, makes a thinly veiled reference to a feline fur trade, and proclaims loudly "I Love Dogs" :-).
• The West Seattle Blog notes that it can be hard to stay pesticide-free when you're battling Japanese knotweed.
• Harsens Island News posts about a series of Phragmites workshops on the island, part of Michigan.

Weekend Blog Blogging (Labor Day Edition)

The past week in invasive species blogging...from other people's blogs:

• Walking the Berkshires has an interesting post about the invasive status of horned poppy and rugosa rose in Massachusetts.
• The Natural Patriot notes the irony in the recent news that house sparrows and starlings are endangered in the UK.
• Roebrt Emanuel at H2ONCoast writes about the Japanese knotweed in bloom in Oregon.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species news, from other people's point of view:

• From KampusSejahtera, an interesting look into invasive species in Malaysia.
• Boba Fett's Pimp Cup (hey, I don't make these names up!) posts about feral Muscovy duck populations in Florida. Warning: if phrases like "putrid butt ooze" make you squeamish, don't click through.
• Raising Islands has a very interesting post about "self-feeding" invasive plants in Hawaii.

Weekend Blog Blogging

The past week in invasive species blogging:

• Lake Loop has an informative post about not one, but two different invasive threats to the native West Virginia white butterfly.
• Stephen Bodio's Querencia blogs about the biological control of Tamarisk, and spawns a number of interesting comments.
• Elijah Weber posts the second of a two-parter about ethics and the mute swan conundrum over at the Mindful network. Part one was back in June.