Monitoring and Forecasting of Invasive Species

The Invasive Species Program assesses changes in populations and distributions of established invaders.  As part of their strategic plan, they strive to:

• Apply of cost effective methodologies for statistically reliable monitoring of the spread of invasive species in U.S. ecosystems (in cooperation with the Status and Trends Program),
• Integrate use of historical occurrence records, remote sensing and global positioning system (GPS) technologies, improved field sampling methods, and GIS to document spatial and temporal patterns of expanding invasions at site, landscape, and regional scales,
• Develop methods for systematic observations of invader populations to understand factors influencing the lag period - sometimes spanning many decades - between the initial establishment of a free living population and the appearance of invasions at landscape and regional scales,
• Develop methods for monitoring the effectiveness of measures to reduce or eliminate invasive species populations and to restore native communities.

Below is a sampling of research conducted in USGS Science Centers that deal with Monitoring and Forecasting of Invasive Species:

• Cichlid fishes of the Southeastern United States: Identification, Distribution, and Environmental Considerations - (Principle Investigator: Howard Jelks, FISC)
  
  
• Developing Ecological Forecasting Models With High Performance Computing (in partnership with NASA) - (Principle Investigator: Tom Stohlgren, FORT)
  
  
• Development of the Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database - (Principle Investigator: Amy Benson, FISC)
  
  
• Documenting, Mapping, and Predicting Invasive Plants, Animals, and Diseases in the United States - (Principle Investigator: Tom Stohlgren, FORT)
  
  
• Documenting, Mapping, and Predicting Invasive Plants, Animals, and Diseases in the United States - (Principle Investigator: Tom Stohlgren, FORT)
  
  
• ED/RR Technical Assistance - (Principle Investigator: Randy Westbrooks, NWRC)
  
  
• Estimation of Ecosystem-level Effects and Evaluation of Potential Control Methods for the Asian Swamp Eel (Family: Synbranchidae, Genus: Monopterus) - (Principle Investigator: Leo Nico, SOFIA)
  

• Predicting the Spread of Invasive Exotic Plants into De-watered Reservoirs Following Dam Removal on the Elwha River, Olympic National Park, WA  - (Principle Investigator: Andrea Woodward, FRESC)
  
  
• NBII Invasive Species Information Node - (Principle Investigator: Catherine Jarnevich, MESC)
  
  
• Non-native, Invasive Plant Information for the Southwest: Southwest Exotic Plant Information Clearinghouse (SWEPIC)and Southwest Exotic Plant Mapping Project (SWEMP) - (Principle Investigator: Kathryn Thomas, SBSC)
  
  
• Nutria Population Estimates - (Principle Investigator: Steven Travis, NWRC)
  
  
• Progression of the Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) Distribution in North America (FISC)
  
  
• Seed Bank and Regeneration Ecology of the Invasive Sedge, Scleria lacustris,in Seasonal Marshes of Florida - (Principle Investigator: Colette Jacono, FISC)