Amy Benson looks through a microscope, searching for the details to correctly identify a specimen.

Tracking the Invaders--the Work of a Fisheries Biologist

By Tania Larson

Next to habitat loss, nonindigenous species are the largest threat to the Nation's native biodiversity. They threaten native communities, alter habitats, and can significantly impact the economy. As transportation has gotten faster and faster, species that are smuggled on board airplanes or sucked into ships' ballast tanks are more easily surviving travel around the world. Previously established invasive species are spreading and new species are being brought in--both unintentionally and intentionally.

In aquatic environments, invasive species can be especially detrimental because native species don't have many options for escaping new predators or new competition for food and habitat. The invaders, on the other hand, often find themselves in a more hospitable environment than the one they left; without their natural competitors, predators, and diseases, many invaders thrive easily and spread rapidly. For example, it took the zebra mussel only five years to spread to the waters of 20 States, and hydrilla, one of the Nation's most problematic aquatic weeds, has infested 21 States.

Nearly every aquatic system in the United States has recorded occurrences of nonindigenous species.

With such fast and dramatic changes, keeping track of the status and distribution of nonindigenous species is imperative for decision-making and resource management. That's where the USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) project comes in. The NAS works to detect, monitor, conduct research, and promote public education on invasive species.

Amy Benson is a fisheries biologist with the NAS, and as such, she is part of a worldwide community fighting this growing threat to native biodiversity. One of Amy's primary responsibilities is to update the program's ever-growing database of nonindigenous species with new reports of where they have been sighted.

Amy says that her most exciting days are those when new reports come in. "It's amazing how many foreign organisms are found here; what survives and what doesn't survive," she says.

When she receives reports of invasive species, she and other staff work to verify the information. If the reported species is easily identifiable, she simply asks the submitter to send them photos of the specimen. If it is something harder to identify, she asks the submitter to ship the specimen itself to them, so they can take a closer look. She also relies on local fish and wildlife biologists to help with the verification. Once verified, she updates the NAS database and the new information goes live to the world.

If the report turns out to be a significant range expansion for the species, Amy will map it, which is one of her favorite activities. In fact, she says she likes to work on graphics and mapping for many of her colleagues at the Center for Aquatic Resource Studies in Gainesville, Florida, because she enjoys the chance to be creative and think about how to display information. She says, "Any projects around here where I can utilize those skills, I do."

While the Internet has become a very powerful tool for science, Amy offers this tidbit of best practice advice: "With the Internet, publishing seems antiquated, but it is still good to put things down in a scientific journal. The Internet is here today, gone tomorrow. Scientific journals are still the best way to formally document research."

The spectacled caiman, Caiman crocodilus, is native to Central and South America and is now established in south Florida, a result of numerous intentional releases or pet escapes dating back to the 1960s.

To that end, Amy has started working on analysis manuscripts. While the NAS database makes invasive species information readily available to anyone who may want or need it, she still believes that the USGS has the best experience to interpret the information.

Working on her manuscripts has to be squeezed in among the daily tasks of the job, and that's okay with her; she enjoys helping people. She handles a lot of technical assistance, as State biologists, university researchers, private consultants, other Federal agencies, and students ranging from middle-schoolers to post-docs call in for information.

Amy does a lot of custom queries of the database, helping people who want to know what's in their area, or if something has arrived or is likely to arrive there soon. In this way, USGS serves as an early warning system. When the zebra mussel was the poster child for invasives, she answered calls from congressional staffers. And reporters continue to call to learn what's new in their area. "I like helping people like that," she says.

Like most people, she finds the administrative part of her job frustrating. She also finds the general public's lack of concern about invasives to be exasperating. "Many people just don't care," she says. "Others are intentionally bringing things in with the philosophy that if they can make money off of it, they're going to bring it in."

Green Mussel - Perna viridis. Photo courtesy of USGS and Buck Albert.

While it's discouraging to see invasive species spreading to new territory, Amy is encouraged by the community that is coming together to tackle the problem, which is one of her favorite things about the job--the network of people who care and who are working together with a common conservation goal in mind.

She has been to Ireland and Russia, meeting with others who have come from around the world to discuss ways to stop the spread of invasive species. Speaking of colleagues near and far, she says, "I love the people. It's a great group to work with."

The International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species she attended in Ireland last year will be held in Florida in May 2006, and Amy has taken on the role of coordinating the program. Although it's her first time planning a conference, she is having fun. She has been putting out proposals to agencies for funding. She says it's not something sponsored by any one group or agency; it's a consortium of agencies with people interested in invasive species.

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Page Last Modified: August 02 2005