The influence of warming and biotic interactions on the potential for range expansion of native and nonnative species.

Plant species ranges are expected to shift in response to climate change, however, it is unclear how species interactions will affect range shifts. Because of the potential for enemy release of invasive nonnative plant species from species-specific soil pathogens, invasive plants may be able to shift ranges more readily than native plant species. Additionally, changing climatic conditions may alter soil microbial functioning, affecting plant-microbe interactions.

Quantifying the impacts of future sea level rise on nesting sea turtles in the southeastern United States.

Sandy beaches, a necessary habitat for nesting sea turtles, are increasingly under threat as they become squeezed between human infrastructure and shorelines that are changing as a result of rising sea levels. Forecasting where shifting sandy beaches will be obstructed and how that directly impacts coastal nesting species is necessary for successful conservation and management. Predicting changes to coastal nesting areas is difficult because of a lack of consensus on the physical attributes used by females in nesting site choice.

How Much Are Floridians Willing to Pay for Protecting Sea Turtles from Sea Level Rise?

Sea level rise (SLR) is posing a great inundation risk to coastal areas. Some coastal nesting species, including sea turtle species, have experienced diminished habitat from SLR. Contingent valuation method (CVM) was used in an effort to assess the economic loss impacts of SLR on sea turtle nesting habitats for Florida coasts; and to elicit values of willingness to pay (WTP) of Central Florida residents to implement certain mitigation strategies, which would protect Florida's east coast sea turtle nesting areas.

Ecosystem legacy of the introduced N2-fixing tree Robinia pseudoacacia in a coastal forest.

Habitat invasibility has been found to increase dramatically following the alteration of ecosystem properties by a nonnative species. Robinia pseudoacacia, black locust, is a nitrogen-fixing, clonal tree species that aggressively invades open habitats and expands outside of plantations worldwide. Robinia pseudoacacia stands in Cape Cod National Seashore were particularly susceptible to a hurricane in 1991 that caused widespread blowdown and a dramatic reduction in Robinia in some stands.

Climatic variability leads to later seasonal flowering of Floridian plants.

Understanding species responses to global change will help predict shifts in species distributions as well as aid in conservation. Changes in the timing of seasonal activities of organisms over time may be the most responsive and easily observable indicator of environmental changes associated with global climate change. It is unknown how global climate change will affect species distributions and developmental events in subtropical ecosystems or if climate change will differentially favor nonnative species.

Economic impacts of invasive species in forests: past, present, and future.

Biological invasions by nonnative species are a by-product of economic activities, with the vast majority of nonnative species introduced by trade and transport of products and people. Although most introduced species are relatively innocuous, a few species ultimately cause irreversible economic and ecological impacts, such as the chestnut blight that functionally eradicated the American chestnut across eastern North America. Assessments of the economic costs and losses induced by nonnative forest pests are required for policy development and need to adequately account for all of the economic impacts induced by rare, highly damaging pests.