Biological Invasions

Citizen Science: Help Stop Invaders With Your Smart Phone

In an online citizen science project called Invader ID, anyone with an Internet connection can help SERC marine biologists identify underwater life on thousands of photos.
Study: Tsunami Enabled Hundreds of Species to Cross Pacific

In a new study in Science, biologists found nearly 300 species made an epic voyage rafting across the ocean on debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami. (Photos: Nancy Treneman, John Chapman)
Catfish Surgery

How do biologists keep tabs on invasive blue catfish in murky waters? SERC biologist Rob Aguilar shows TV host Josh Bernstein in this video. (Smithsonian Science Education Center)
Environmental Forensics and Invasive Phragmites

An invasive strain of the common reed, Phragmites australis, has exploded across Chesapeake marshes. Using DNA, scientists attempt to uncover what's behind its spread.
NEMESIS

What marine invaders are closest to you? Explore our NEMESIS database to find out. (Photo: Tunicate Botryllus planus, by Rosana M. Rocha)
National Ballast Information Clearinghouse

Cargo ships can unwittingly carry invasive species in their ballast water. SERC and the U.S. Coast Guard teamed up to track how ships can combat them. (Photo: Monaca Noble/SERC)
Zombie Crabs and Body-Snatching Parasites

Meet Loxo (short for Loxothylacus panopaei), an invasive parasite that infects mud crabs and turns them into "zombie nursemaids" for its own larvae.

Affiliated Labs

Biological invasions are a major force of change, affecting many dimensions of life on Earth. Invasions result when species colonize new geographic regions, which are disjunct (isolated) from existing populations. Humans have dramatically altered invasion dynamics, especially with the global expansion of trade in modern times.

Historically, geographic barriers such as oceans and continents have shaped the dispersal, distribution, and evolution of organisms. These types of barriers were sometimes breached by shifting land masses and sea level rises over geologic time, as well as by episodic or rare events, such as storm- and tsunami-induced rafting or dispersal of organisms through the air. But in recent times, human activities increasingly transfer organisms across these barriers, altering the magnitude and tempo of dispersal and the types (diversity) of organisms moved around the world.

Today, new invasions are dominated by human-aided dispersal, where global trade can move species across continents and ocean basins in days or even hours. Transportation and the movement of organisms by humans—both intentional and unintentional—has greatly accelerated the baseline rate of invasions for marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats throughout the world, allowing many species transfers that would never occur otherwise. From the poles to the equator, no global region is immune to human-mediated invasions. These invasions are strongly affecting processes within populations, processes within ecosystems, disease dynamics, and goods and services to society.

SERC is a world leader in research on biological invasions, with diverse research programs that explore (a) the underlying mechanisms that lead to invasions, (b) changing spatial and temporal patterns of non-native species occurrence, (c) the ecological, social, and conservational consequences of invasions, and (d) the effects of management and policy on invasion dynamics and impacts. As a cross-cutting theme that affects many ecological processes, SERC invasion research is conducted across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats at the population, community, and ecosystem levels.