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University of Illinois is one of the nation’s research powerhouses. Illinois researchers pioneer new ideas, develop technologies, and shape policies. Scientists conduct invasive research to combat the threat of existing invasive species and prevent future invasions. Departments and partners doing invasive plant research include Extension forestry, the Prairie Research Institute, the Department of Crop Sciences, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant.
INVASIVE PLANTS
From forests to wetlands, Illinois researchers are exploring invasive plant populations, new surveillance technology, and improved control methods.
AQUATIC INVASIVES
Rivers split across mountaintops and other geographic barriers may flow only a few miles from one another, but to the aquatic creatures in those waters, the separation could represent millions of years of evolutionary time. In the U.S. Geological Survey’s Non-Indigenous Aquatic Species database, these so-called “native transplant” fish are almost twice as common as fish introduced from outside the country. But a new University of Illinois review says native transplant fish, especially those that don’t qualify as game fish, are rarely studied and their impacts are poorly understood.
AGRICULTURAL INVASIVES
According to University of Illinois agricultural ecologist Adam Davis, many cost estimates for cleaning up unwanted, invasive plants are just that: estimates, extrapolated via desktop analysis from relatively scant data. Unsatisfied with that, Davis suffered hornet attacks and years of backbreaking labor to arrive at real dollars and cents associated with removal of escaped Miscanthus plants.