RESEARCH
The Invasive Species Collaborative is actively confronting the invasive species crisis by producing original research, connecting across branches of knowledge, and training the next generation of policy-minded scientists.
Publications and presentations
Invasion science requires interdisciplinary teams and creative thinkers. The ISC brings together experts from diverse disciplines to promote regional, national, and global scholarship. Bolded names denote an ISC affiliation.
Publications | 2025
- Klopf, S.K., Zipper, C., Evans, D.M., & Fields-Johnson, C. (February 2025). Mine reclamation practices influence emerging plant communities in Appalachia, U.S.A. Reclamation Sciences.
- Mouser, J.B., Loughman, Z.J., Brown, B.L., Creed, R.P., & Frimpong, E.A. (February 2025). Drivers of the Distributions of Stream-Dwelling Crayfishes in the New River Catchment, United States. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.
- McAvoy, T.J., Mays, R., Salem, M., Chamberlin, L., Rhea, R., Asaro C., & Salom, S. (January 2025). 22-Year Study of the Spread and Impact of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid and Elongate Hemlock Scale in Southwest Virginia. Journal of Forestry.
- Soler-Tovar, D. & Escobar, L.E. (January 2025). Rabies transmitted from vampires to cattle: An overview. PLOS One.
Publications | 2024
- Blossey, B., Nuzzo, V., & Endriss, S.B. (December 2024). From ecological menace to roadside attraction: 28 years of evidence to support successful biocontrol of purple loosestrife. Ecosphere.
- Coscia, J.T., Harris, J.B.C., Floyd, D., Beall, M.C., Bellangue, D., Chaney, D., Gorrell, J., Sackett, E., Staengl, E.J., & Reid, J.L. (December 2024). Floristics of Virginia’s Northern and Central Piedmont grasslands. Vegetation Classification and Survey.
- de Almeida, C., Reid, J.L., Reffeira de Lima, R., Guesdes Pinto, L.S., & Gorne Viani, R.A. (December 2024). High-diversity Atlantic Forest restoration plantings fail to represent local floras. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation.
- Gawel, A.M., Wald, D.M., & Rogers, H.S. (December 2024). Community perceptions of invasive species and environmental management in a US island territory. Conservation Biology.
- Miles, L.S. Adams, R., Francioli, Y.Z., Card, D.C., Castoe, T.A., & Booth, W. (November 2024). A chromosome-level reference genome for the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, with identification of sex chromosomes. Journal of Heredity.
- Wald, D.M., Diaz-Manrique, M., Witzling, L., & Comito, J. (November 2024). Motivating conservation action in the Upper Midwest: Source attention, information seeking and sharing, and farmers’ land management decisions. Conservation Science and Practice.
- Creed, R.P., Thomas, M.J., Meeks, A.L., & Brown, B.L. (November 2024). Ectosymbionts improve host gill function in a freshwater cleaning symbiosis. Symbiosis.
- Miles, H.H., Salom, S., Shively, T.J., Bielski, J.T., McAvoy, T.J., & Fearer, C.J. (November 2024). A review of potential biological controls for Ailanthus altissima. Annals of the Entomological Society of America.
- Bellangue, D., Barney, J., Flessner, M., Kubesch, J., O’Rourke, M., Tracy, B., & Reid, J.L. (November 2024). Site preparation and planting strategies to improve native forb establishment in pasturelands. Agronomy.
- Wang, S., Liao, Z., Cao, P., Schmid, M., Zhang, L., Bi, J., Endriss, S., Zhao, Y., Parepa, M., Hu, W., Akamine, H., Wu, J, Ju, R., Bossdorf, O., Richrds, C., & Li, B. (October 2024). General purpose genotypes and evolution of higher plasticity in clonality underlie knotweed invasion. bioRxiv [pre-print].
- Shively, T.J., Barney, J.N., Reid, J.L., & Salom, S.M. (October 2024). The bioherbicide Verticllium nonalfalfae effectively removes Ailanthus altissima but leaves many other nonnative plants. Invasive Plant Science and Management.
- Drake, J., O’Malley, G. Kraft, J., & Mims, M. (October 2024). Combining graph theory and spatially-explicit, individual-based models to improve invasive species control strategies at a regional scale. Landscape Ecology.
- McAvoy, T.J., Foley, J.R., Barnett, S.D., Mays, R., Dechaine, A., & Salom, S.M. (October 2024). Laboratory assessment of predation and fecundity of Laricobius species (Coleoptera: Derodontidae), predators of hemlock woolly adelgid. Biocontrol Science and Technology.
- Holl, K.D., Reid, L. Zahawi, R.A., de Siqueira, L.P., & Brancalion, P.H.S. (September 2024). A call for practical spatially patterned forest restoration methods. Restoration Ecology.
- Lee. H., Hildebrand, R., Cai, W., & Buyuktahtakin, E. (September 2024). Algorithms for finding the best pure Nash Equilibrium in edge-weighted budgeted maximum coverage games. arXiv.
- Bell, S.S., McElmurray, P., Creed, R.P., & Brown, B.L. (August 2024). Impacts of invasion on a freshwater cleaning symbiosis. Oecologia.
- Kastner, M., Goetz, S.M., Baker, K.M, Siers, S.R., Paxton, E.H., Nafus, M.G., & Rogers, H.S. (July 2024). Gape-limited invasive predator frequently kills avian prey that are too large to swallow. Ecology and Evolution.
- Sharma, G, Haak, D. Westwood, J.H., Askew, S., & Barney, J.N. (July 2024). Transgenerational phenotypic responses to herbicide stress are more rapid than to shade and simulated herbivory in Arabidopsis. PubMed.
- Beall, M.C., Barney, J.N., Welbaum, G.E., & Reid, J.L. (June 2024). Implications of germination tolerances on invasion potential of Anthraxon hispidus. PLOS One.
- Tang, Q., Vargo, E.L., Ahmad, I., Jiang, H., Varadinova, Z.K., Dovih, P., Kim, D., Bourguigon, T., Booth, W., Schal, C., Mukha, D.V., Rheindt, F.E., & Evans, T.A. (May 2024). Solving the 250-year-old mystery of the origin and global spread of the German cockroach. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA.
- Barney, J.N., O’Malley, G., Ripa, G.N., Drake, J., Franusich, D., & Mims, M.C. (April 2024). A silent spring, or a new cacophony? Invasive plants as maestros of modern soundscapes. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
- Booth, W. (April 2024). Population genetics as a tool to understand invasion dynamics and insecticide resistance in indoor urban pest insects. Current Opinion in Insect Science.
- Kinsley, A., Kao, S.Y.Z., Enns, E.A., Escobar, L.E., Qiao, H., Craft, M.E., Muthukrishnan, R., Larkin, D.J., & Phelps, N.D.B. (April 2024). Modeling the risk of aquatic species invasion spread through boater movements and river connections. Conservation Biology.
- Nogales, M., McConkey, K.R., Carlo, T.A., Wotton, D.M., Bellingham, P.J., Traveset, A., Gonzalez-Castro, A., Heleno, R., Watanabe, K., Ando, H., Rogers, H., Heinen, J.H., & Drake, D.R. (January 2024). A review on the state of the art in frugivory and seed dispersal on islands and the implications of global change. Botanical Review.
Publications | 2023
- Fletcher, R.A., Atwater, D.Z., Haak, D.C., Bagavathiannan, M.V., DiTommaso, A., Lehnhoff, E., Paterson, A.H., Auckland, S., Govindasamy, P., Lemke, C., Morris, E., Rainville, L., & Barney, J.N. (December 2023). Adaptive constraints at the range edge of a widespread and expanding invasive plant. AoB PLANTS.
- Reed, E.M.X., Cathey, S., Braswell, C., Agarwal, P., Barney, J.N., Brown, B.L., Heminger, A., Kianmehr, A., Salom, S., Schenk, T., Sharma, G., & Haak, D.C. (October 2023). The state of play in invasive species policy: Insights from invasive species laws and regulations in 21 US states. BioScience.
- Van de Vuurst, P., Qiao, H., Soler-Tovar, D., & Escobar, L.E. (October 2023). Climate change linked to vampire bat expansion and rabies virus spillover. Ecography.
- Sorice, M.G., Rajala, K., Brown, B.L., Masterson, V., & Fuhlendorf, S.D. (June 2023). Relationship with the land as a foundation for ecosystem stewardship. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
- Reed, E.M.X., Schenk, T., Brown, B.L., Rogers, H.S., Haak, D.C., Drake, J.C., & Barney, J.N. (June 2023). Holistic valuation of non-native species requires broadening the tent. Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
- Brainard, D.C., Haramoto, E.R., Leon, R.G., Kells, J.J., Van Wychen, L.R., Devkota, P., Jugulam, M., & Barney, J.N. (June 2023). A survey of weed research priorities: Key findings and future directions. Weed Science.
- Roy, H. E. et. al. (eds.) & Barney, J.N. et. al. (contrib.). (June 2023). Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. IPBES Secretariat, Bonn, Germany.
- Copenheaver, C.A., Peterson, J.A., Goldbeck-DeBose, K., & Barney, J.N. (February 2023). Non-native plants observed in North America by 18th century naturalists. Ecoscience.
Publications | 2022 and earlier
- Haak, D.H., Salom, S., Barney, J.N., Lakoba, V.T., Brooks, R.K., Fletcher, R.A., Foley, J.R., Heminger, A., Maynard, L.D., McElmurray, P., Seo, H-J., & Sharma, G. (May 2022). Transformative learning in graduate global change education drives conceptual shift in invasive species co-management and collaboration. Environmental Education Research.
- Brown, B.L. & Barney, J.N. (January 2021). Rethinking biological invasions as a metacommunity problem. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
- Lakoba, V.T., Brooks, R.K., Haak, D.C., & Barney, J.N. (September 2020). An analysis of U.S. state regulated weed lists: a discordance between biology and policy. BioScience.
- Barney, J.N., Schenk, T., Haak, D.C., Salom, S., Brown, B., & Hotchkiss, E.R. (February 2019). Building partnerships and bridging science and policy to address the biological invasions crisis. Invasive Plant Science and Management.
Graduate student research
The ISC is dedicated to supporting graduate student research, outreach, and professional development opportunities. The 2024-2025 Graduate Student Grant Program opened during the fall semester and after a competitive selection process, 11 projects and 12 students were funded. Click below to learn more about grant awardees and their respective research.
2024-2025 Cohort
- Synteny analysis surrounding the male sex determining locus in A. albopictus and A. aegypti – Christen Hughes, Department of Biochemistry
- Host plant specific transcriptome adaptations in the spotted lanternfly – Brian Ruether, Department of Biological Sciences
- Acoustic monitoring and fine-scale error rates of detection for an invasive and native anuran in the southwestern U.S. – Grace O’Malley, Department of Biological Sciences
- Understanding the invasion genomics of a globally resurging indoor urban pest insect in low-income housing – Camille Block, Department of Entomology
- You can wriggle, but you can’t hide: Detecting invasive worms with eDNA in turfgrass – Jordan Thompson, Department of Entomology
- Enhancing invasive ant baiting and biocontrol efficiency with a simple molecule – Chloe Liu and Charly Hartle, Department of Entomology
- The genetic diversity and spread of the invasive aphid species, Metopolophium festucae cerealium, in the U.S. – Shirin Parizad, Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center
- Impacts of brown tree snake on trophic dynamics of Micronesian starlings using stable isotope analysis – Zia Cryster, Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
- Whom to trust: Examining the role of trust in invasive species management – Miguel Diaz-Manrique, School of Public and International Affairs
- Characterizing the phytobiome of Ailanthus altissima and its changes following inoculation with the proposed fungal biocontrol agent Verticillium nonalfalfae – Harrison Miles, Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
- Soil nutrient availability as a predictor of invasive plant establishment on restored streams – Gabrielle Ripa, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
2023-2024 Cohort
- Understanding embryonic development and respiratory activities of bed bugs – Morgan Wilson, Department of Entomology
- Developing control methods (trapping) for the invasive Asian needle ant – Charly Hartle and Chloe Liu, Department of Entomology
- Response of macroinvertebrates to invasion and stream restoration – Matt Sharpe, Entomology and Gabrielle Ripa, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
- How soil nutrient availability impacts establishment of invasive plants – Gabrielle Ripa, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
- Effects of a biocontrol agent on the invasive Tree of Heaven’s fungal community – Anyelina Mangru and Tim Shively, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
- Using sound to monitor invasive and native frog species – Grace O’Malley, Department of Biological Sciences
- Seed dispersal networks and traits for invasive fruiting plants in Appalachia – Abir Jain, Department Fish and Wildlife Conservation
U.S. Army veteran and Tillman Scholar Tim Shively, a Ph.D. student in plant pathology, physiology, and weed science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is studying a biological control agent for the invasive tree-of-heaven. Inspired to serve by 9/11, Shively earned his undergraduate degree and commission at West Point.
