Our daughter’s mud kitchen is the latest garden habitat to be colonised by mosquitoes Unsure if the beer is cause or effect

Removing barriers reconnects rivers. Good news: native species usually respond positively. Less-good news: invasive species can too. Our new global review shows that river restoration can create winners on both sides of the native/non-native divide, but results are generally positive.

It's #InvasiveSpeciesWeek! Climate + Co-Centre Funded Investigator Dr Ross Cuthbert (@qubelfastofficial.bsky.social) write about the Asian tiger mosquito, climate change, and the new MosquitoNI project tracking mosquitoes in Northern Ireland. Read it here 👇️

Invading a changing world - Climate Co Centre

The Asian tiger mosquito is spreading across Europe. Climate change is accelerating invasive species like it — and the UK may be next.

climatecocentre.org

Mosquito-borne diseases pose an increasing risk to bird populations in the UK and Ireland 🐦‍⬛ The MosquitoNI project is studying which mosquito species are living here, and what viruses they might carry.

Barrier removal efforts are surging in the world's #rivers to restore ecological connectivity What does this mean for #invasivespecies? Our new paper in @globalchangebio.bsky.social quantifies native and non-native responses to barrier removals worldwide onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Native and Non‐Native Populations Respond Unevenly to River Barrier Removals

While barrier removals restore river connectivity and promote recovery of native populations, they may also facilitate non-native species, creating a ‘connectivity conundrum’. Using a systematic revi...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Human health impact assessments from invasive species lag behind their environmental and economic effects We present a new, comprehensive typology to characterise the diverse mechanisms underpinning human health consequences from biological invasions Pre-print: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Shall we promote harvesting and consuming invasive species as a mangament strategy? Oficialdegui et al are skeptical: Demystifying invasivorism as a management strategy @pnas.org 🧪🌍🎣 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🔓

Demystifying invasivorism as a management strategy | PNAS

Demystifying invasivorism as a management strategy

pnas.org

Keeping our eyes peeled for the first container-breeding mosquitoes of the 2026 season… #MosquitoNI Last year, we had several cryptic species within the Culex pipiens complex breeding in our garden

We have launched the first public reporting tool for mosquitoes in Northern Ireland 🦟 The #MosquitoNI project aims to fill regional knowledge gaps while improving understandings of how mosquitoes respond to human-induced environmental changes 🌡️🏗️ mosquitoni.com www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

How do we know the extend of biological invasions? Is it a large invasions? A small one? How do we compare invasions of tiny organisms (e.g., ants) and of larger ones (e.g., rabbits)? How do we quantify objectives, or efficiency of management? See our new paper in BioScience! 👇 tinyurl.com/ynuk8cm7

Early Registration ends on March 31, 2026. There’s still time to take advantage of reduced fees. Learn more and register here: bit.ly/3J0O3JX

Two *4-year* research #jobs in #mosquito vector biology at @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social: (1) Research Fellow: hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec... (2) Research Assistant (part-time): hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec... We aim to unravel local vector assemblages while testing global processes

Great to have our ‘MosquitoNI’ project funded by a BBSRC New Investigator Award This £1.5M project will unravel how mosquitoes, their viruses, and associated pathogens respond to environmental changes. It also addresses knowledge needs in a data-poor temperate region www.qub.ac.uk/schools/Scho...

With #bluetongue on the rise, including the first detections in Ireland this week, it is important to understand vector overwintering potential Our new study identifies surprisingly high levels of #midge cold tolerance across their full life history www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Substantial cold tolerance in all life stages of the biting midge Culicoides nubeculosus (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

In temperate regions, vector-borne disease risk is mediated by cold winter conditions, however, the cold tolerance of key vector taxa remains poorly understood. Culicoides biting midges are the primar...

biorxiv.org

A suspected case of Bluetongue Virus has been identified in cattle in Northern Ireland

Suspected case of bluetongue identified in cattle in NI

A suspected case of Bluetongue Virus has been identified in cattle in Northern Ireland.

rte.ie

ICMB XIII goes to Cape Town, South Africa! The next International Conference on Marine Bioinvasions is now confirmed for 2027! Follow for more updates. Hope to see you there! @marinebioinvasions.bsky.social #bioinvasions #NIS #marinebioinvasions #ICMB2027 #capetown #southafrica

What can medical entomology learn from invasion science? Our new paper in Ecology Letters explores the potential links between aquatic plant invasions and the global proliferation of vector mosquitoes onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Funded PhD opportunity in our lab with NorthWestBio DTP: Assessing the role of plant invasions in mosquito-borne disease risk Plant invasions transform ecosystem structure, but can they promote insect vectors and associated disease risks? Deadline 21 November 2025 www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Global warming confers performance advantages to a non‐native predator nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Global warming confers performance advantages to a non‐native predator

Anthropogenic impacts manifest in rising temperatures worldwide, with drastic consequences for communities and ecosystems. Ectotherms tend to reach a smaller size at maturity in warmer environments, ...

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Had the pleasure of sharing our #mosquito and #midge research with @itvnews.bsky.social earlier this week We are unravelling the insect vector composition and disease risk in Northern Ireland for the first time in decades, with temperate areas increasingly at risk www.itv.com/watch/news/m...

Darwin's naturalisation conundrum poses two conflicting hypotheses around invasion processes Using ~3000 North American fish communities, we show that native relatatedness promotes non-native establishment, but invasion richness links more strongly to human drivers www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Ecological similarity governs non-native fish establishment while human pressure and native diversity shape invasion richness

Closely related fish species are more likely to invade, while human activity drives the number of invaders in a community.

science.org

Abstract submissions have just opened for #ICAIS2026, hosted in Northern Ireland at @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social The conference theme is "Transcending Boundaries", considering habitats, disciplines, regions, and research-policy interfaces Deadline: September 26, 2025 icais.org/icais-2026/c...

Can Galileo and Einstein's theory of relativity be applied to biological systems? This new paper proposes the expansion of the dynamics of relativity theory into evolutionary changes from natural selection: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

🦟"Vertical transmission in field-caught #mosquitoes identifies a mechanism for the establishment of #Usutu #virus in a temperate country" by Mirjam Schilling et al. at APHA, ZSL, @ukhsa.bsky.social in Scientific Reports @natureportfolio.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are recruiting! Looking for a dynamic, self-motivated, field-work loving post-doc to join our team working on invasions in MPAs. More details here: blogs.sun.ac.za/cib/project/... #MarineBioinvasions #bioinvasions #MPAs

The #mosquito season is truly underway in these celtic lands. We're seeing an uptick in Scotland, and #Mosquito Northern Ireland friends Ryan Carmichael & @rosscuthbert.bsky.social got these in a trap in #Armagh today. You can report mosquito sightings in Scotland - www.mosquito-scotland.com

Hybridisation primes population invasiveness under environmental change doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Hybridisation primes population invasiveness under environmental change

Population-level differences can mediate biological invasion success under climatic gradients. I highlight recent research that demonstrates profound differences in environmental tolerances between i....

doi.org

Followed by @rosscuthbert.bsky.social on why urban species can be successful invaders & @elliedolan.bsky.social on how to balance river barrier removal and invasive species management

Using species ranges and macroeconomic data to fill the gap in costs of biological invasions www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Using species ranges and macroeconomic data to fill the gap in costs of biological invasions - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Estimates of the monetary costs of invasive species have been hampered by data gaps. These authors use documented costs for 162 species to interpolate costs of those species for countries previously l...

nature.com

Mosquito trapping underway in Northern Ireland. Interested to see what the season (including my garden) will bring #MosquitoNI An exciting collaboration with the inspiring @mosquitoscotland.bsky.social team