the opportunistic mould aspergillus is a ubiquitous fungus. diseases caused by aspergillus species are most commonly caused by aspergillus fumigatus. the spectrum of disease caused by aspergillus is dependent on the health of the immune system. the ranges of illnesses individuals acquire are aspergilloma, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, invasive aspergillosis, sinusitis, otomycosis, oc...

Understanding the origins and introduction pathways of invasive species is a fundamental issue for invasion biology, which is necessary for predicting and preventing future invasion. Once an invasive species is established in a new location, this location could serve as a stepping-stone for further invasions. However, such "stepping-stone" effect has not been widely investigated. Using the publ...

A large — but unknown — number of alien species have become established in ecosystems across the United States, where some are causing serious damage. Forests of the Northeast have been particularly impacted by exotic species ranging from insects to starlings, and from herbaceous plants to pathogens. Government trade policies exacerbate the threat of new introductions. Funding shortfalls hamper...

Copyright 2006 by Ram Ranjan. All Rights Reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this paper for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. Abstract This paper explores the issue of technology adoption in agriculture that is specifically targeted against invasive species. The analysis involves predicting the long term distribution ...

This chapter aims to inform a practitioner about current methods for predicting potential distributions of invasive species. It mostly addresses single species models, covering the conceptual bases, touching on mechanistic models, and then focusing on methods using species distribution records and environmental data to predict distributions. The commentary in this last section is oriented towar...

1. Plants interact with many organisms, such as microbes and herbivores, and these interactions are likely to affect the establishment and spread of plants. In the context of plant invasions, mycorrhizal fungi and constitutive and induced resistance of plants against herbivores have received attention independently of each other. However, plants are frequently involved in complex multi-trophic ...

For a plant species to become invasive it has to progress along the introduction-naturalization-invasion (INI) continuum which reflects the joint direction of niche breadth. Identification of traits that correlate with and drive species invasiveness along the continuum is a major focus of invasion biology. If invasiveness is underlain by heritable traits, and if such traits are phylogenetically...

The level of invasion (number or proportion of invasive species) in a given area depends on features of the invaded community, propagule pressure, and climate. In this study, we assess the invasive flora of nine islands in the West Indies to identify invasion patterns and evaluate whether invasive species diversity is related to geographical, ecological, and socioeconomic factors. We compiled a...

Enemy release is frequently posed as a main driver of invasiveness of alien species. However, an experimental multi-species test examining performance and herbivory of invasive alien, non-invasive alien and native plant species in the presence and absence of natural enemies is lacking. In a common garden experiment in Switzerland, we manipulated exposure of seven alien invasive, eight alien non...

The number of recognized invasive termite species has increased from 17 in 1969 to 28 today. Fourteen species have been added to the list in the past 44 years; 10 have larger distributions and 4 have no reported change in distribution, and 3 species are no longer considered invasive. Although most research has focused on invasive termites in urban areas, molecular identification methods have an...