Invasive Species

Increasingly, Ted Grosholz's research is addressing the interaction between climate change and biological invasions. As the result of participation in an NCEAS (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis) working group on climate change and invasive species, he has continued his collaborative work on synthetic analyses of climate change impacts on the invasion process that began with participation in an NCEAS working group on climate change and invasive species.

Marine invasive species are species introduced by human activities to new habitats where the species are not native. Marine invasive species are causing more and more costly economic problems, such as fouling the hulls of boats, which slows the vessels and increases the fuel costs. BML researchers continue to be among the top in the field of marine invasive species.

Biodiversity is, simply, the variety of life on Earth, and can be characterized at various levels from genes, to species and ecosystems. Understanding the causes of patterns of the diversity of life on Earth and the functional consequences of natural and human-caused variation in that diversity are fundamental goals of ecology and a focus of active research at BML. These studies are all the more pressing given the impact that human activities have on biodiversity.

The Shellfish Health Laboratory (SHL) at BML is the State Department of Fish and Wildlife’s shellfish health facility and is also a UCD Vet Med lab through the Principal Investigator, Colleen Burge. Findings from the SHL have been critical to the State of California and these include: