Anthony Ricciardi
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ecoinvasions.bsky.social
Anthony Ricciardi
@ecoinvasions.bsky.social
4.4K followers 800 following 1.4K posts

Ecologist (invasive species, freshwater biodiversity, bioinvasions, aquatic ecosystems) | Professor of Biology, McGill University | Director of the Bieler School of Environment | My lab account: @ricciardilab.bsky.social

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Environmental science 69%
Geography 17%
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ecoinvasions.bsky.social
Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 7h
This is one of many species that posed a high risk of invading North American inland waters via the St Lawrence Seaway - until the 2006-08 ballast water regulation was put into effect (see conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....).
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Invasive demon shrimp discovered in Wiltshire waterway
The "highly invasive" shrimp are larger than native species and can damage ecosystems.
www.bbc.com

Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi

chikichanka.bsky.social
Miguel Clavero @chikichanka.bsky.social · 12h
Very nice paper in @peopleandnature.bsky.social showing that people rapidly change their perception around the nativeness status of species when they are used to their presence
Shifting baselines and non-native species... see my 2014 paper below
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

ecoinvasions.bsky.social
Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 20h
Interested in the phenomenon of invasional meltdown? Have a look at this thread:
bsky.app/profile/ecoi... #bioinvasions
ecoinvasions.bsky.social Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · Jul 31
1/ Invasional meltdown is a popular but nebulous concept in invasion ecology. It involves multiple direct & indirect mechanisms, yet it is rarely studied beyond simple pairwise facilitations.

In a new paper, we expand the concept & offer testable hypotheses: redpath-staff.mcgill.ca/ricciardi/Ri...

ecoinvasions.bsky.social
Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 21h
... Part of the story is documented here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
and here:
www.researchgate.net/publication/...

The photos below show the contrast in forest understory in uninvaded (top) and invaded (bottom) sites on Christmas Island by the yellow crazy ant.
Impacts of invasion of Christmas Island rain forest by the yellow crazy ant. (Top) Uninvaded site with open understorey maintained largely by the foraging activities of the red land crab. (Bottom) Invaded site 1–2 years after ant invasion with a dense & diverse seedling cover and thick litter layer. Photos by Peter Green.

Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi

jlembrechts.bsky.social
Jonas Lembrechts @jlembrechts.bsky.social · 1d
Quick guess! Do you think biotic resistance holds up in mountains?

Elton (1958) predicted diverse native communities resist newcomers. Our new paper using the global MIREN data says: not really — mountains didn't play along.

The breakdown --> the3dlab.org/2026/09/22/n...
Little resistance where we expected it
Once you have gone through the effort of collecting a global database, you can start playing with it. And one of the most fun things to play with, I’d say, is general ecological theories &#82…
the3dlab.org

Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi

newscientist.com
New Scientist @newscientist.com · 1d
An amoeba living in a Californian hot spring is thriving above 60°C, a threshold previously thought deadly to complex life
Fire amoeba breaks heat tolerance record for complex life | New Scientist
www.newscientist.com

ecoinvasions.bsky.social
Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 1d
Classic example of invasional meltdown. The ants have a mutualism with introduced scale insects. Ant attacks have severely reduced native land crabs, thus altering the forest understory & lowering resistance to invasion by giant African land snails. #bioinvasions
scienceofficial.org/nature/yello...
Yellow Crazy Ants Defeat Red Crabs with Chemical Attack on Christmas Island
BBC footage shows yellow crazy ants using formic acid to overpower red crabs, highlighting an invasive species crisis that has devastated Christmas Island's ecosystem for decades.
scienceofficial.org

Reposted by Anthony Ricciardi

samillingworth.com
Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 1d
🌱 Invasive plants evolve to win

Researchers found plants growing outside their native range evolved to outcompete their own relatives back home, in wet and dry conditions alike.

🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-77819-z

#ecology #invasivespecies #plants 🧪
Rapid and repeated evolution of increased competitive ability in a global invader - Nature Communications
Rapid evolution may shape the success of invasive species. This study shows that the invasive plant species Erigeron canadensis repeatedly evolved increased competitive ability after introduction, and...
doi.org