WaterNotes

TreeHugger carried some interesting posts this week, and I nearly missed out on this one, detailing the recent sightings of African rock pythons in the Everglades.  Florida already has an established population of invasive Burmese pythons.   Apparently some state officials are concerned that it would be possible for the rock pythons and the Burmese [...]

The St. Johns River Water Management District is circulating a warning of recent sightings of invasive Australian spotted jellyfish in the Indian River Lagoon near the Eau Gallie River. The first reported sightings of the spotted invaders came in the 2001 and 2002 seasons with no further jellies seen in the interim until just [...]

Another day, another “I thought that was an invasive species” story to tell. This time, its the apple snails in the genus Pomacea that are on the line. At my current teaching spot we have an aquarium setup with Pomacea. They’ve taken to laying thousands of beautiful pink eggs in small casings [...]

This past Tuesday lionfish successfully leaped into the Florida Keys. A recreational diver spotted a lionfish on the Benwood Ledge, just off of Key Largo’s coastline, and reported the sighting, along with a digital image to confirm identity, that quickly prompted a recovery operation. A team from REEF, NOAA, and FKNMS were able [...]

Invasive species are often the culprits behind ecosystem imbalances causing the loss of native species.  We often think of direct competition for food (say introduced Gambusia mosquitofish outcompeting native killifish here in Florida) or space (like kudzu vines overgrowing practically everything) as the sole impact that drives such imbalances, but introduced species also introduce new diseases. 
PLOS One [...]