BACKGROUND Biological invasions are fundamentally biogeographic processes that occur over large spatial scales. Interactions with soil microbes can have strong impacts on plant invasions, but how these interactions vary among areas where introduced species are highly invasive vs. naturalized is still unknown. In this study, we examined biogeographic variation in plant-soil microbe interactions ...

The rust fungus Maravalia cryptostegiae, from south-west Madagascar, was introduced into Australia in 1995 as a classical biological control agent against the highly invasive rubber-vine weed Cryptostegia grandiflora, a woody climber endemic to Madagascar. The rust was released at 69 sites between 1995 and 1997 and is now established throughout the plant’s exotic range in Queensland, estimated ...

The development of low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and light weight imaging sensors has resulted in significant interest in their use for remote sensing applications. While significant attention has been paid to the collection, calibration, registration and mosaicking of data collected from small UAVs, the interpretation of these data into semantically meaningful information can still ...

The factors that determine which plant species become invasive weeds are not well understood and there have been few studies of population dynamics in the early stages of invasion. Here, we examine changes in population size, pollinator visitation and seed set of the tree lupin, Lupinus arboreus, in Tasmania between 1999 and 2010. Lupinus arboreus is a native of California that has become a maj...

Aquatic ecosystems throughout the world are threatened by the presence of invasive aquatic plants, both floating and submerged. Some of the aquatic species, such as water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes [Mart.] Solms), alligator weed, Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.), giant salvinia, Salvinia molesta D.S. Mitchell and water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes L.), Griseb. despite being relatively mino...

India has a wide range of agroclimates and soil types. The highly diverse agriculture and fanning systems are beset with different types of weed problems. Weeds cause 10-80% crop yield losses besides impairing product quality and causing health and environmental hazards. Invasive alien weeds are a major constraint to agriculture, forestry and aquatic environment. Crop-specific problematic weeds...