Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) is an aggressive invader of forests throughout the eastern United States. While self-pollination has been identified as an important trait of invasive plant species, this trait is understudied, and Amur honeysuckle is anecdotally described as lacking this characteristic. To examine the ability of Amur honeysuckle to self-pollinate, we selected 171 individual shrubs distributed across nine sites. Each site was grouped into one of three invasion types: heavy, light, and sprouting (sites on which a basal cutting treatment previously occurred, but Amur honeysuckle was allowed to reestablish). We compared the number of berries, seeds per berry, and seed germination rates of self- and open-pollinated flowers by pairing branches covered with pollination bags prior to flower emergence with uncovered branches on the same individual shrub. Out of 171 individuals, 48 produced berries from self-pollination within pollination bags (28%), with 48% of bagged branches exhibiting some degree of necrosis or chlorosis, presumably due to increased temperature and humidity. Berries from self-pollination produced 1.5 ± 1.4 (mean ± 1 SD) seeds per berry, whereas berries resulting from open-pollination produced 3.3 ± 1.5 seeds per berry. In a germination trial, 47.3% of self-pollinated seeds germinated, compared to 41.7% of open-pollinated seeds. This study has shown that Amur honeysuckle can self-pollinate and set viable seed, providing the species with an important mechanism to increase population abundance during the early stages of invasion.

Tree-of-heaven [Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle] readily exploits disturbances, grows quickly into dense monocultures, and suppresses native plant species. The vascular wilt pathogen, Verticillium nonalfalfae, native to the eastern United States, has been proposed as a biocontrol agent for the invasive A. altissima. Studies consistently demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the bioherbicide, but they also note that the selective nature of the fungus does not preclude other invasive plants that commonly co-occur with A. altissima from occupying the site. We quantified the standing plant community and seedbank at several sites across Virginia 5 yr after inoculation with V. nonalfalfae to understand which species are present or being naturally recruited. Ailanthus altissima remained dominant in untreated areas but was nearly eradicated from the treatment plots. Other non-native species made up a large portion of the plant community and seedbank across all study areas, with no differences in their respective cover and count between treatments. While variability in plant community composition is high and site-specific context is important for establishing effective management strategies, planting native species and mitigating other invasives will be crucial to ensuring native species successfully establish in bioherbicide-treated areas.

Two broad aims drive weed science research: improved management and improved understanding of weed biology and ecology. In recent years, agricultural weed research addressing these two aims has effectively split into separate subdisciplines despite repeated calls for greater integration. Although some excellent work is being done, agricultural weed research has developed a very high level of repetitiveness, a preponderance of purely descriptive studies, and has failed to clearly articulate novel hypotheses linked to established bodies of ecological and evolutionary theory. In contrast, invasive plant research attracts a diverse cadre of nonweed scientists using invasions to explore broader and more integrated biological questions grounded in theory. We propose that although studies focused on weed management remain vitally important, agricultural weed research would benefit from deeper theoretical justification, a broader vision, and increased collaboration across diverse disciplines. To initiate change in this direction, we call for more emphasis on interdisciplinary training for weed scientists, and for focused workshops and working groups to develop specific areas of research and promote interactions among weed scientists and with the wider scientific community.

Russian-olive is a small tree or large multistemmed shrub that was introduced to Canada and the United States from Eurasia in the early 1900s. It was provisioned in large numbers during the last century to prairie farmers as a shelterbelt plant and remains a popular and widely available ornamental. Now invasive within some riparian ecosystems in the western United States, Russian-olive has been declared noxious in the states of Colorado and New Mexico. With traits including high shade tolerance and a symbiotic association with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, Russian-olive has the potential to dominate riparian vegetation and thus radically transform riparian ecosystems. Especially alarming is its capacity to influence nutrient dynamics within aquatic food webs. Our objective is to draw attention to Russian-olive as a potential threat to riparian ecosystems within Canada, especially in the southwest, where invasion is becoming commonplace. We review what is known about its biology and about the threats it poses to native organisms and ecosystems, and we summarize management and control efforts that are currently underway. We conclude by proposing a research agenda aimed at clarifying whether and how Russian-olive poses a threat to riparian ecosystems within western Canada.

Classical biological control is a key method for managing populations of pests in long-lived crops such as plantation forestry. The execution of biological control programmes in general, as the evaluation of potential natural enemies remains, to a large extent, an empirical endeavour. Thus, characterizing specific cases to determine patterns that may lead to more accurate predictions of success is an important goal of the much applied ecological research. We review the history of introduction, ecology and behaviour of the parasitoid Ibalia leucospoides. The species is a natural enemy of Sirex noctilio, one of the most important pests of pine afforestation worldwide. We use an invasion ecology perspective given the analogy between the main stages involved in classical biological control and the biological invasion processes. We conclude that success in the establishment, a common reason of failure in biocontrol, is not a limiting factor of success by I. leucospoides. A mismatch between the spread capacity of the parasitoid and that of its host could nevertheless affect control at a regional scale. In addition, we suggest that given its known life history traits, this natural enemy may be a better regulator than suppressor of the host population. Moreover, spatial and temporal refuges of the host population that may favour the local persistence of the interaction probably reduce the degree to which S. noctilio population is suppressed by the parasitoid. We emphasize the fact that some of the biological attributes that promote establishment may negatively affect suppression levels achieved. Studies on established non-native pest–parasitoid interactions may contribute to defining selection criteria for classical biological control which may prove especially useful in integrated pest management IPM programmes of invasive forest insects.

Interference competition between closely related alien and indigenous species often influences the outcome of biological invasions. The whitefly Bemisia tabaci species complex contains ≥28 putative species and two of them, Mediterranean (MED, formally referred to as the ‘Q biotype’) and Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1, formally referred to as the ‘B biotype’), have recently spread to much of the world. In many invaded regions, these species have displaced closely related indigenous whitefly species. In this study, we integrated laboratory population experiments, behavioural observations and simulation modelling to investigate the capacity of MED to displace Asia II 1 (AII1, formally referred to as the ‘ZHJ2 biotype’), an indigenous whitefly widely distributed in Asia. Our results show that intensive mating interactions occur between MED and AII1, leading to reduced fecundity and progeny female ratio in AII1, as well as an increase in progeny female ratio in MED. In turn, our population cage experiments demonstrated that MED has the capacity to displace AII1 in a few generations. Using simulation models, we then show that both asymmetric mating interactions and differences in life history traits between the two species contribute substantially to the process of displacement. These findings would help explain the displacement of AII1 by MED in the field and, together with earlier studies on mating interactions between other species of the B. tabaci complex, indicate the widespread significance of asymmetric mating interactions in whitefly species exclusions.

Bothrometopus huntleyi is a flightless weevil endemic to the volcanically-formed sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands archipelago that arose approximately 0.5 million years ago (m.y.a.). Since emergence, a series of volcanic and glaciation events have occurred on Marion Island, whilst Prince Edward Island, the second island constituting the archipelago, has remained largely unaffected by glaciation. Cytochrome oxidase I gene analyses indicate that major historical dispersal events in this species are linked to the geologically discrete histories of these islands and underlie the high haplotype diversity (0.995) recovered for the Prince Edward Islands archipelago. The estimated time to haplotype coalescence of ∼ 0.723 m.y.a. is in keeping with estimated dates of island emergence, and the majority of individuals appear to have descended from a relict, high-altitude population that is still present on Marion Island. The first major inter-island dispersal event occurred ∼ 0.507 m.y.a., coinciding with the oldest dated rocks on Marion Island. Apart from this early inter-island colonization, only one other between-island dispersal event was detected. The genetically discrete B. huntleyi complexes on each of the islands of the Prince Edward Islands archipelago together with the low levels of inter-island gene flow reaffirm the need to control alien invasive mice, which are restricted to Marion Island, and which prey on this weevil species.