1. How organisms locate their hosts is of fundamental importance in a variety of basic and applied ecological fields, including population dynamics, invasive species management and biological control. However, tracking movement of small organisms, such as insects, poses significant logistical challenges. 2. Mass-release and individual–mark–recapture techniques were combined in an individually m...

Managing invasive species is inherently a spatial problem, even though the application of management is local. For efficient management of invasive species, we must therefore understand their spatial population dynamics. Once key demographic and dispersal rates are studied in detail, spatial population models can be constructed and utilized to evaluate the impact of various management options. ...

Controversy exists over estimation of ecological risk in biological control. At present, the risk to the rare, federally listed Pitcher’s thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) in North America from Rhinocyllus conicus, a biological control weevil now feeding on many native thistles, is unknown. We hypothesized that quantification of host specificity and potential phenological overlap between insect and pl...

BACKGROUND Global warming and shifted precipitation regimes increasingly affect species abundances and distributions worldwide. Despite a large literature on species' physiological, phenological, growth, and reproductive responses to such climate change, dispersal is rarely examined. Our study aims to test whether the dispersal ability of a non-native, wind-dispersed plant species is affected b...

Nonrandom seed release is an important determinant of how far seeds disperse, but the mechanisms that promote wind-related seed release under varying atmospheric conditions are poorly understood. We explored the use of particle image velocimetry (PIV) to gain a better mechanistic understanding of seed release by visualizing the flow velocities and vorticity in a two-dimensional slice of air aro...

Remote detection of non-native invasive plant species using geospatial imagery may significantly improve monitoring, planning and management practices by eliminating shortfalls, such as observer bias and accessibility involved in ground-based surveys. The use of remote sensing for accurate mapping invasion extent and pattern offers several advantages, including repeatability, large area coverag...

BACKGROUND Ethnobotanical studies are crucial in South-Eastern Europe for fostering local development and also for investigating the dynamics of Traditional Environmental Knowledge (TEK) related to plants in one of the most crucial European hotspots for biocultural diversity. The current medico-ethnobotanical survey was conducted in rural alpine communities in Kosovo. The aims of the study were...