Anthony Ricciardi
@ecoinvasions.bsky.social
Ecologist (invasive species, freshwater biodiversity, bioinvasions, aquatic ecosystems) | Professor of Biology, McGill University | Director of the Bieler School of Environment | My lab account: @ricciardilab.bsky.social
Both countries have harmonized regs for ships entering the seaway, mandating saltwater flushing of ballast tanks. Lakers (domestic ships) are exempt. But they move organisms between ports in the Great Lakes. Canada requires them to install systems to treat ballast water. www.wpr.org/news/conflic...
Tensions mount over conflicting ballast water regulations on the Great Lakes
American shippers are at odds with the Canadian government over its regulations that require all Great Lakes vessels or “lakers” to install systems to treat their ballast water by 2030.
www.wpr.org
November 22, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Both countries have harmonized regs for ships entering the seaway, mandating saltwater flushing of ballast tanks. Lakers (domestic ships) are exempt. But they move organisms between ports in the Great Lakes. Canada requires them to install systems to treat ballast water. www.wpr.org/news/conflic...
In the 1960s NATO scientists treated biodiversity as a strategic asset. Inspired by Charles Elton, they viewed complex ecosystems as being less vulnerable to disruption by warfare: www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/o.... Now economists are recognizing risks of biodiversity loss www.iflr.com/article/2a63...
Biodiversity concerns set to be the next frontier after climate change
With the rise of natural capital initiatives such as the TNFD, systemic risk issues related to ecosystem collapse will soon receive the same amount of attention as climate change
www.iflr.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:18 AM
In the 1960s NATO scientists treated biodiversity as a strategic asset. Inspired by Charles Elton, they viewed complex ecosystems as being less vulnerable to disruption by warfare: www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/o.... Now economists are recognizing risks of biodiversity loss www.iflr.com/article/2a63...
Another reminder: Biological invasions are at least as costly as earthquakes, floods & wildfires. Their prevention deserves similar precautionary investments as those applied to extreme natural hazards. #bioinvasions
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Biological invasions are as costly as natural hazards
Natural hazards — such as storms, floods, and wildfires — can be disastrous phenomena and so can biological invasions, for which impacts are often irr…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Another reminder: Biological invasions are at least as costly as earthquakes, floods & wildfires. Their prevention deserves similar precautionary investments as those applied to extreme natural hazards. #bioinvasions
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A reminder, from the 2023 IPBES assessment of invasive alien species. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Invasive species cost humans $423bn each year and threaten world’s diversity
At least 3,500 harmful invasive species recorded in every region on Earth spread by human activity, says UN report
www.theguardian.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:37 AM
A reminder, from the 2023 IPBES assessment of invasive alien species. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Quote: "There are a more living cells on Earth — a million trillion trillion (or 10^30 in math notation, a 1 followed by 30 zeros) — than there are stars in the universe or grains of sand on our planet."
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/s...
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/s...
Exactly How Much Life Is on Earth? (Published 2023)
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Quote: "There are a more living cells on Earth — a million trillion trillion (or 10^30 in math notation, a 1 followed by 30 zeros) — than there are stars in the universe or grains of sand on our planet."
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/s...
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/s...
Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi
Researchers in New Hampshire are studying how ash loss from #EmeraldAshBorer may mirror the disappearance of American chestnut, tracking impacts on forest biodiversity, soil and ecosystem health.
Read more: newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/10/13/w...
#InvasiveSpecies #Entomology 🧪🌍🍁
Read more: newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/10/13/w...
#InvasiveSpecies #Entomology 🧪🌍🍁
What can the emerald ash borer reveal about the long-ago loss of American chestnut? • New Hampshire Bulletin
For more than 70 years, the American chestnut tree has, mostly, been absent from the landscape. But historical accounts of its grandeur and the tons of nutritious seeds it produced every fall have mad...
newhampshirebulletin.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Researchers in New Hampshire are studying how ash loss from #EmeraldAshBorer may mirror the disappearance of American chestnut, tracking impacts on forest biodiversity, soil and ecosystem health.
Read more: newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/10/13/w...
#InvasiveSpecies #Entomology 🧪🌍🍁
Read more: newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/10/13/w...
#InvasiveSpecies #Entomology 🧪🌍🍁
Two flawed rhetorical arguments are repeatedly used to downplay the risks of introduced non-native species.
One argument is:
“The vast majority of non-native species are not a threat to native biodiversity or ecosystems (so concern about them is overblown)”.
This overlooks a few crucial points...🧵
One argument is:
“The vast majority of non-native species are not a threat to native biodiversity or ecosystems (so concern about them is overblown)”.
This overlooks a few crucial points...🧵
November 19, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi
The wonderful people at the NZ Science Learning Hub have turned my talk on MythBusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction into a freely available educational resource. You can check it out here www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/my...
Mythbusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction
De-extinction hit the headlines recently with the ‘resurrection’ of the dire wolf and the push to bring back the moa. However, can scientists really bring back extinct animals? And more importantly, s...
www.sciencelearn.org.nz
November 18, 2025 at 9:47 PM
The wonderful people at the NZ Science Learning Hub have turned my talk on MythBusting de-extinction to sort fact from fiction into a freely available educational resource. You can check it out here www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/my...
Quote: "Invasive plants generally had negative effects on native plant diversity & greenhouse gas emissions. Native plant diversity was not a strong predictor of invasive plants’ effects. [Diversity decreased] the longer the invasive species was present" #bioinvasions www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Invasion impacts in terrestrial ecosystems: Global patterns and predictors
Biological invasions can alter ecosystems, yet their impacts vary across ecological contexts. Using a global meta-analysis of 775 studies (2223 effect sizes) in terrestrial systems, we show that the m...
www.science.org
November 19, 2025 at 5:37 AM
Quote: "Invasive plants generally had negative effects on native plant diversity & greenhouse gas emissions. Native plant diversity was not a strong predictor of invasive plants’ effects. [Diversity decreased] the longer the invasive species was present" #bioinvasions www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi
"Over the last 10,000 years or so, humans have overseen the wholesale replacement of native mammal communities with a very limited set of domesticated species."
We have an idyllic image of farming, but the truth is it has been a catastrophe for life on Earth, and is rapidly getting worse.
We have an idyllic image of farming, but the truth is it has been a catastrophe for life on Earth, and is rapidly getting worse.
Fossil evidence from six continents indicates that human agriculture and livestock have fundamentally altered global mammal communities, disrupting natural patterns established during the Ice Age. doi.org/g95dzg
How humans reshaped the animal world: Research traces 50,000 years of change
New fossil research shows how human impacts, particularly through the rise of agriculture and livestock, have disrupted natural mammal communities as profoundly as the Ice Age extinctions.
phys.org
November 17, 2025 at 6:08 AM
"Over the last 10,000 years or so, humans have overseen the wholesale replacement of native mammal communities with a very limited set of domesticated species."
We have an idyllic image of farming, but the truth is it has been a catastrophe for life on Earth, and is rapidly getting worse.
We have an idyllic image of farming, but the truth is it has been a catastrophe for life on Earth, and is rapidly getting worse.
Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi
Shown here is one of New Zealand's most unique and charismatic parrot species: the kākāpō, threatened with extinction by the introduction of invasive species. But the decline of this parrot also includes the decline of its unique parasites, tracked over almost 800 years.
November 6, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Shown here is one of New Zealand's most unique and charismatic parrot species: the kākāpō, threatened with extinction by the introduction of invasive species. But the decline of this parrot also includes the decline of its unique parasites, tracked over almost 800 years.
Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi
🍃Invasive species removal boosts phylogenetic & functional biodiversity, but how? This 3-year field experiment shows that abundance shifts drive recovery more than species colonization & extinction👇
🔍 Article: buff.ly/7rMkwrL
📰 Blog: buff.ly/vKJDO3M
🔍 Article: buff.ly/7rMkwrL
📰 Blog: buff.ly/vKJDO3M
November 11, 2025 at 2:03 PM
🍃Invasive species removal boosts phylogenetic & functional biodiversity, but how? This 3-year field experiment shows that abundance shifts drive recovery more than species colonization & extinction👇
🔍 Article: buff.ly/7rMkwrL
📰 Blog: buff.ly/vKJDO3M
🔍 Article: buff.ly/7rMkwrL
📰 Blog: buff.ly/vKJDO3M
Quote: "75% of Kilimanjaro’s indigenous plants had been wiped out over the last century. The main cause: intensive land use by farmers & builders; the loss of the plants’ natural habitats; and increasing numbers of non-indigenous, partly invasive plants."
November 19, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Quote: "75% of Kilimanjaro’s indigenous plants had been wiped out over the last century. The main cause: intensive land use by farmers & builders; the loss of the plants’ natural habitats; and increasing numbers of non-indigenous, partly invasive plants."
Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi
Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi
Safeguarding long-term research in ecology and evolution www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Q&A with Stéphane Blanc, research director at CNRS, about the Long-term Studies in Ecology and Evolution programme and its priorities for supporting long-term monitoring and research
Free to read: rdcu.be/eQltU
Q&A with Stéphane Blanc, research director at CNRS, about the Long-term Studies in Ecology and Evolution programme and its priorities for supporting long-term monitoring and research
Free to read: rdcu.be/eQltU
Safeguarding long-term research in ecology and evolution - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Long-term research projects are essential for predicting the ecological and evolutionary responses of species to global change, yet their continuity is often threatened by uncertainties over funding. ...
www.nature.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Safeguarding long-term research in ecology and evolution www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Q&A with Stéphane Blanc, research director at CNRS, about the Long-term Studies in Ecology and Evolution programme and its priorities for supporting long-term monitoring and research
Free to read: rdcu.be/eQltU
Q&A with Stéphane Blanc, research director at CNRS, about the Long-term Studies in Ecology and Evolution programme and its priorities for supporting long-term monitoring and research
Free to read: rdcu.be/eQltU
Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi
Mathematician and astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius was born #OTD in 1790. 🧪 🔭
He is best known for devising a surface that not even the New York Times could find a way to both-sides.
He is best known for devising a surface that not even the New York Times could find a way to both-sides.
a bunch of ants are crawling around a circular object that looks like an infinity sign
Alt: A bunch of ants are crawling around a Mobius strip, which is a one sides object produced by twisting one end of a flat strip by 180 degrees and then gluing it to the other end.
media.tenor.com
November 17, 2024 at 8:37 PM
Mathematician and astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius was born #OTD in 1790. 🧪 🔭
He is best known for devising a surface that not even the New York Times could find a way to both-sides.
He is best known for devising a surface that not even the New York Times could find a way to both-sides.
Lichen has survived 18 months attached to the outside of the Int'l Space Station.
If a microbe mutated while in space (as has happened already: astrobiology.com/2024/04/bact...) & was subsequently introduced back to Earth, should it be considered a non-native species?
My answer would be yes. [1/🧵]
If a microbe mutated while in space (as has happened already: astrobiology.com/2024/04/bact...) & was subsequently introduced back to Earth, should it be considered a non-native species?
My answer would be yes. [1/🧵]
Bacteria Found On The International Space Station Are Mutating To Become Functionally Distinct - Astrobiology
strains of the bacterial species Enterobacter bugandensis isolated from the International Space Station (ISS) were studied.
astrobiology.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Lichen has survived 18 months attached to the outside of the Int'l Space Station.
If a microbe mutated while in space (as has happened already: astrobiology.com/2024/04/bact...) & was subsequently introduced back to Earth, should it be considered a non-native species?
My answer would be yes. [1/🧵]
If a microbe mutated while in space (as has happened already: astrobiology.com/2024/04/bact...) & was subsequently introduced back to Earth, should it be considered a non-native species?
My answer would be yes. [1/🧵]
A warning by scientists.
Owing to interactions among drivers, and the increasing spread of new & well-established alien species, "simple extrapolations from the impacts of invasive alien species observed today are likely to underestimate the magnitude of future impacts."
phys.org/news/2024-06...
Owing to interactions among drivers, and the increasing spread of new & well-established alien species, "simple extrapolations from the impacts of invasive alien species observed today are likely to underestimate the magnitude of future impacts."
phys.org/news/2024-06...
Team of international experts call for urgent action against increasing threat from invasive species
While invasive alien species have long been recognized as a major threat to nature and people, urgent action now is needed to tackle this global issue. This is the critical evaluation by the 88 author...
phys.org
November 16, 2025 at 3:07 AM
A warning by scientists.
Owing to interactions among drivers, and the increasing spread of new & well-established alien species, "simple extrapolations from the impacts of invasive alien species observed today are likely to underestimate the magnitude of future impacts."
phys.org/news/2024-06...
Owing to interactions among drivers, and the increasing spread of new & well-established alien species, "simple extrapolations from the impacts of invasive alien species observed today are likely to underestimate the magnitude of future impacts."
phys.org/news/2024-06...
A common claim is that zebra mussels "clean" lakes. They can certainly clear the water column but also create conditions that reduce oxygen & promote toxic algal blooms:
phys.org/news/2021-06...
www.canr.msu.edu/news/telecou...
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...
www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/rese...
phys.org/news/2021-06...
www.canr.msu.edu/news/telecou...
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...
www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/rese...
Telecoupling and the spillover system: Causes and effects of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes
Examining the impacts of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and beyond.
www.canr.msu.edu
November 16, 2025 at 2:48 AM
A common claim is that zebra mussels "clean" lakes. They can certainly clear the water column but also create conditions that reduce oxygen & promote toxic algal blooms:
phys.org/news/2021-06...
www.canr.msu.edu/news/telecou...
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...
www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/rese...
phys.org/news/2021-06...
www.canr.msu.edu/news/telecou...
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...
www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/07/rese...
"When ecosystems fail, supply chains stall, costs spike, and financial stability is eroded.
The World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss and extreme weather among the decade’s top global risks.
Yet, most companies leave nature out of their strategic plans."
www.eco-business.com/opinion/busi...
The World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss and extreme weather among the decade’s top global risks.
Yet, most companies leave nature out of their strategic plans."
www.eco-business.com/opinion/busi...
Businesses can’t build resilience without nature strategies
Businesses must develop nature strategies and implement them swiftly to mitigate risks and build resilience in a changing world.
www.eco-business.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:36 AM
"When ecosystems fail, supply chains stall, costs spike, and financial stability is eroded.
The World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss and extreme weather among the decade’s top global risks.
Yet, most companies leave nature out of their strategic plans."
www.eco-business.com/opinion/busi...
The World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss and extreme weather among the decade’s top global risks.
Yet, most companies leave nature out of their strategic plans."
www.eco-business.com/opinion/busi...
It has been 5 yrs since Dan Simberloff & I developed an annotated 2nd edition of Charles Elton's famous 1958 monograph "The Ecology of invasions by Animals and Plants". We added 9 new chapter forewords, an introduction & a conclusion - all of which aimed to place Elton's ideas into a modern context.
November 16, 2025 at 2:15 AM
It has been 5 yrs since Dan Simberloff & I developed an annotated 2nd edition of Charles Elton's famous 1958 monograph "The Ecology of invasions by Animals and Plants". We added 9 new chapter forewords, an introduction & a conclusion - all of which aimed to place Elton's ideas into a modern context.