Government scientists in Britain have found new allies in their fight against invasive plant species and are deploying them to help protect native species.
According to The Guardian, scientists working for the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) teamed up to tackle a tricky trio of invasive species: Japanese knotweed, floating pennywort, and Himalayan balsam.
They've turned to several non-traditional means to combat these plants through a process known as biocontrol. In the case of pennywort, they've deployed the South American weevil Listronus elongatus, which has been shown to significantly curb the population.
Likewise, they've turned to the Japanese knotweed psyllid, an insect that feeds exclusively on knotweed, to help slow its rampant spread across the country.
In the case of Himalayan Balsam, though, they've turned to a rust fungus, Puccinia komarovii var. glanduliferae, which naturally attacks and kills the plant, without the use of harmful pesticides.
"Once the biocontrol agent is working properly, then it should actually start to spread naturally across the range, where the non-native species is, and it will start to bring that population of the non-native species down," said Olaf Booy, deputy chief non-native species officer at APHA.
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"Hopefully, once it starts to establish in the wild, then it sort of starts taking over itself, and the human effort bit starts to reduce significantly."
All three of these plants illustrate the dangers that invasive species pose to ecosystems. They were introduced to England as ornamental plants, and, without native species to keep them in check, they quickly outcompeted native species and began to take over space.
They reproduce quickly and aggressively, and in the case of knotweed, have been known to cause serious damage to home foundations and disrupt construction projects because it's so hard to eradicate once it's established.
Traditional treatments like pesticides can be costly to deploy and risk poisoning the soil, preventing other plants from growing there. Biosecurity minister Sue Heyman explained that an overheating planet has not helped in the fight to protect native species.
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"With a changing climate we are constantly assessing for new risks and threats, including from invasive plants and animals, as well as managing the impacts of species already in this country," Heyman began.
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Yes 👍 "Invasive non-native species cost Britain's economy nearly £2bn a year, and our environmental improvement plan sets out plans to reduce their establishment to protect native wildlife and farmers' livelihoods."
Ultimately, the British government hopes that these unique methods can help it hit its goal of reducing the establishment of invasive species by 50% by 2030.
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