DAILY TRIFECTA: The Intraplanetary Invaders Are Coming!
Hard truths about unforeseen consequences
TITLE: ‘Alarming’: Unexpected pathogen spread by infected chiggers found for 1st time in North Carolina
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/4293599-alarming-unexpected-pathogen-spread-by-infected-chiggers-found-for-1st-time-in-north-carolina/
EXCERPT: Wildlife researchers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro found a novel pathogen for the first time in North Carolina that is carried by chiggers.
Bacteria called Orientia tsutsugamushi causes the disease scrub typhus, which is spread to people through bites of infected chiggers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“That is a disease that has never been described in North America or in the Americas altogether,” Gideon Wasserberg, an infectious disease expert who works in the UNCG Department of Biology, said.
Symptoms include:
a dark scab at the site of the bite
confusion
fever
chills
headache
body aches
rash
larger lymph nodes
In some extreme cases, it can lead to organ failure.
There is no vaccine available to prevent scrub typhus, but the antibiotic doxycycline can be given to anyone. People treated with doxycycline tend to recover quickly. The antibiotic will be more effective if given as soon as symptoms become noticeable.
“Typically, people did not consider them [chiggers] like mosquitoes or ticks that might be transmitting infectious agents that cause disease … They haven’t been of much concern because we thought that there’s no scrub typhus here,” Wasserberg said.
Most cases of scrub typhus happen in rural areas of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, China, Japan, India, Pakistan and northern Australia.
TITLE: Giant exotic spiders are invading the eastern United States — and experts warn they're here to stay
https://www.salon.com/2023/11/07/giant-exotic-spiders-are-invading-the-eastern-united-states--and-experts-warn-theyre-here-to-stay/
EXCERPT: Originating from East Asian countries like China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, the Jorō spider first reached the United States in either 2013 or 2014 and currently has a 120,000 kilometer range. Because this spider is hurting other species in its new environment, it's considered invasive species, or an animal or plant that is both not native to an ecosystem where it currently lives and harmful. And given how well they seem to be doing here, only continuing to spread, it seems unlikely we'll ever be rid of them.
“Those data show that this spider is going to be able to inhabit most of the eastern U.S.,” David Coyle, study co-author and assistant professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation at Clemson University, said in a statement. “It shows that their comfort area in their native range matches up very well with much of North America."
“These are not just benign spiders coming to catch and kill bad things; these are pushing out native species and catching and killing whatever happens to get in their webs,” Coyle added. “Are they bad or good? It’s very nuanced depending on your perspective.”
TITLE: Extreme weather may help invasive species outcompete native animals – new study
https://theconversation.com/extreme-weather-may-help-invasive-species-outcompete-native-animals-new-study-217131
EXCERPT: Invasive species introduced by humans often possess traits that help them survive or even thrive when ecosystems are disturbed (perhaps by wildfire, a storm or human buildings).
Invasive plants are generally fast-growing, for instance, allowing them to quickly fill gaps before native species can recover from disturbances. They are also often very good at dispersing their seeds, allowing them to quickly colonise disturbed areas.
This is why scientists have long suspected that extreme weather and the success of non-native species could be linked.
If extreme weather removes native plants and animals, that increases the availability of resources such as water and space. Non-native species can then capitalise on these new resources to establish themselves.
Even more concerning is the potential for extreme weather and non-native species to interact, exacerbating their effect on native biodiversity. For instance, in a recent field experiment in the US, scientists deliberately started a fire which killed about 10% of the longleaf pine trees in the area studied.
But in areas where an invasive grass – cogongrass, an Asian native – was allowed to establish itself alongside the pines, the fires had more fuel and were larger, hotter and burned for longer.
Where the scientists had added rain shelters to simulate drought conditions, the grass dried out further and the fires became much more lethal. A combination of drought and the invasive species meant longleaf pine mortality soared to 44%.
Similarly, on the small Macquarie Island in the south west Pacific, a combination of extreme rainfall and the presence of invasive European rabbits reduced the breeding success of nesting black-browed albatrosses. Heavy grazing by the invasive rabbits reduced plant cover, exposing the albatross chicks to the harsh weather conditions.
This relationship between extreme weather and invasive species – two human-driven drivers of global change – threatens native plants and animals and could cost countries billions of dollars in coming decades. Ecologists must identify priority areas and species that can be targeted in efforts to minimise costs and prevent the loss of native biodiversity.