Newsletter of the Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network ( APFISN )

Vol. 42 Sept - Oct 2017

APFISNInvasivesInvasives

Contents The Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (APFISN) has been established as a

response to the immense costs and dangers posed by invasive species to the sustainable

management of forests in the Asia-Pacific region. APFISN is a cooperative alliance of the

33 member countries in the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC) - a statutory body

of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The network

focuses on inter-country cooperation that helps to detect, prevent, monitor, eradicate

and/or control forest invasive species in the Asia-Pacific region. Specific objectives of the

network are: 1) raise awareness of invasive species throughout the Asia-Pacific region; 2)

define and develop organizational structures; 3) build capacity within member countries;

and 4) develop and share databases and information.

About APFISN

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Asia-PacificForest Invasive

Species

Network

Australian Pine ( )Casuarina equisetifolia

Pond at Ballachulish

'free' of invasive crayfish

nd th th22 – 26 October, 2017. 20 International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species(ICAIS): Global Action against Aquatic Invasive species, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

rd th23 – 27 October, 2017. APFISN partner event in thconnection with 27 Session of the APFC Forestry

week, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

INVASIVES, the Newsletter of the Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (AFPISN) is intended to share information among countries in the Asia-Pacific region on Forest Invasive Species( FIS ) and the threats they pose in the region. If you have any items of news value on FIS to share between national focal points of APFISN and more widely among foresters, agriculturists, quarantine personnel and policy makers, please pass them on to the editor - Dr. T. V. Sajeev, APFISN Coordinator, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi-680 653, Kerala , India (tvsajeev@gmail.com). This newsletter is supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Asia Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutions (APAFRI).

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02Invasives

Threats

Casuarina equisetifolia L., commonly known as

Australian pine, introduced worldwide for

coastal landscaping, is a deciduous and fast

g rowing t ree be longs to the fami ly

Casuarinaceae. The tree has a pine like

appearance because of its distinctive segmented

needlelike foliage and woody cone like

structures. It attains reproductive maturity in 4 -

5 years and maximum growth within 20

years.The life span varies between 40 to 50 years

and growth is around 3m per year.It is not a

leguminous tree, even though it has the ability to

form root nodules with microbial associations

and fix atmospheric nitrogen.

The Australian pine, also known as Whistling

pine, Beef wood or Horse tail tree - a native of

A u s t r a l i a a n d S o u t h e a s t A s i a - i s

presentlyreported as an invasive species from

several countries including American Samoa,

Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Christmas Islands,

Coco Islands, Federated states of Micronesia,

French Polynesia, Japan, Kiribati, Marshal

Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Singapore and the

United States. It is listed as a category 1 pest in the

Florida exotic pest plant council species list and

category 2 invader in South Africa according to

the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act,

1983.

Australian pine is a perennial woody tree, having

straight slender trunk, conical crown and scaly

bark. It reaches a height up to 45 m and diameter

of 1 m. The foliage occurs as olive to green

branchlets that are slender and jointed producing

short segments or nodes. The segmented

branchlets, having a length of 25 cm and

thickness up to 0.1 cm, are angular with

longitudinal ridges separated by furrows

containing stomata.Leaves are reduced to scale

like teeth, up to 0.8 mm length, lanceolate or

triangular in shape appressed to branchlets, and

arranged 6 to 8 per each node.It is a monoecious

plant (sometimes dioecious), with male flowers

originating from tip of the branchlets and female

flowers from lateral positions of branchlets.

Seasonal flowering occurs twice each year during

spring and summer. Flowers are arranged in

separate cylindrical spike inflorescence and

female flowers form woody cones when ripen.

Male cones have an ellipsoid structure and

female cones have cylindrical, conical or globose

structure. Generally wind pollinated and mostly

reproduced by seed production. Seeds are grey

or yellow in colour and winged. They are

dispersed by wind.

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Australian Pine ( )Casuarina equisetifolia

stem with reduced scaly leaves

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03 Invasives

Australian pine is readily adaptable to a variety

of environmental conditions and can grow on

limestone and volcanic soils. It is extremely

tolerant towards wind and salinity, and grows

rapidly during the hot summer. It commonly

occurs in coastal sand dunes, rocky shores,

mangroves, high mountain slopes, pine forests

and humid tropics. It colonizes in disturbed sites

such as filled wetlands, roadsides, cleared sites

and vacant places. It has a very poor survival rate

in the areas of prolonged flooding.This low land

species grows from sea level up to 1500 m and

prefers a mean annual temperature of 22 to 27 ⁰ C,

mean annual rainfall of 640 to 4300 mm, and soil

pH between 5.0 to 7.7.

Because of the hardness and the durability of the

wood, C.equisetifolia has been used forthe

production of poles, rafters, furniture, fences,

tool handles and oars.Ithas beenalso regarded as

an excellent fuel wood with a calorific value of

5000kcal per kg. The other uses of this tree

include coastal landscaping, waste water

treatment through irrigation,reclamation of

lands affected by fluoride emissions and mine

dumps,erosion control, extraction of tannin and

pulp, beautification of parks and cities, and as a

fodder during extreme drought. The medicinal

and anti-bacterial properties of C.equisetifolia are

also effective against diarrhoea, dysentery, beri

beri, head ache, fever and dropsy. It is also

considered as a good alternative for leguminous

plants, due to its remarkable nitrogen fixing

ability.

The Australian pine invasion has been resulting

in negative impact on ecology, economy and

human health. Ecological impact range from

habitat alteration, reduction in native

biodiversity, threat to endangered species,

modification in soil hydrology, physical

disturbances, allelopathic effects and alteration

in successional patterns. The invasion has been

interfering in the nesting of endangered sea

turtles and American crocodiles. The leaf litter

has been increasing the soil acidification to levels

that may be toxic to other plants. The seasonal

release of pollen grains cause respiratory

irritation in humans.

C.equisetifolia is an invasive species rated under

high risk category. Various physical, chemical

and biological measures such asuprooting of

seedlings and saplings, raking and removal of

leaf litter, cones and seeds, periodic fire coupled

with use of herbicides, basal bark or squirt and

hack application of a triclopyr-diesel mixture,

use of bio control agents etc. have been

introduced for its management. The major

biocontrol agents are the seed feeding wasp

Female flower Male flowers

Woody female cones

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(Bootanelleus orientalis) andthe defoliator moth

(Zauclophora pelodes). Pathogens like Rhizoctonia

spp., Lymantria xylina, Clitocybe tabescens etc. also

have significant role in Casuarina management.

Among those management measures, uprooting

of seedlings and saplings is the most effective

method of control.The major challenges of

C.equisetifolia management are the high cost of

control, temporary period effectiveness,

necessity of continuous follow up and

monitoring, and repeated application.

04Invasives

Lochaber Fisheries Trust, Highland, Scotland, reported that a quarry pond located at Ballachulish

Village has been cleared of North American Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacusleniusculus). The crayfish

invasion at this specific site had been first reported in 2011, and the trust now said that there is no

reports of crayfish since last 5 years. Highland council, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Lochaber

Fisheries Trust were involved in the eradication project at Ballachulish. The method adopted for the

eradication process was the use of a poison which is harmless to mammals and birds. The Trust has

tweeted: “Success is an empty crayfish trap. Five years after treating Ballachulish quarry its great the

pond is full of local wildlife but no Cray fish”.

NewsPond at Ballachulish 'free' of invasive crayfish

New publications

Cordeiro, A.D.A.C., Coelho, S.D., Ramos, N.C. and Meira-Neto, J.A.A., Agroforestry systems reduce

invasive species richness and diversity in the surroundings of protected areas. Agroforestry Systems,

pp.1-11.

Merow, C., Bois, S.T., Allen, J.M., Xie, Y. and Silander, J.A., 2017. Climate change both facilitates and

inhibits invasive plant ranges in New England. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(16),

pp.E3276-E3284.

Tamura, M., Suseela, V., Simpson, M., Powell, B. and Tharayil, N., 2017. Plant litter chemistry alters

the content and composition of organic carbon associated with soil mineral and aggregate fractions

in invaded ecosystems. Global Change Biology.

Sardans, J., Bartrons, M., Margalef, O., Gargallo‐Garriga, A., Janssens, I.A., Ciais, P., Obersteiner, M.,

Sigurdsson, B.D., Chen, H.Y. and Peñuelas, J., 2017. Plant invasion is associated with higher

plant–soil nutrient concentrations in nutrient‐poor environments. Global change biology, 23(3),

pp.1282-1291.

05 Invasives

Bornholdt, J.W., Bornholdt, R. and Gray, D.M., 2017. Alien plant species establishment is associated

with reduced soil acidity in the vicinity of concrete block structures 1, 2. The Journal of the Torrey

Botanical Society, 144(3), pp.328-338.

Craig, M.E. and Fraterrigo, J.M., 2017. Plant–microbial competition for nitrogen increases microbial

activities and carbon loss in invaded soils. Oecologia, pp.1-14.

Wong, W.H., Piria, M., Collas, F.P., Simonović, P. and Tricarico, E., 2017. Management of invasive

species in inland waters: technology development and international cooperation. Management, 8(3),

pp.267-272.

Books

Invasion Dynamics. By Cang Hui & David.M.Richardson, published by

Oxford University Press, 2017.

Invasive Species: Risk Assessment and Management. Eds. Andrew P.

Robinson, Terry walshe, Mark A. Burgman & Mike Nunn, Published by

Cambridge University Press, 2017.

This book examines both the spread and impact dynamics of invasive

species, placing the science of invasion biology on a new, more rigorous,

theoretical footing, and proposing a concept of adaptive networks as the

foundation for future research. Biological invasions are considered not as

simple actions of invaders and reactions of invaded ecosystems, but as co-

evolving complex adaptive systems with emergent features of network

complexity and invasibility. Invasion Dynamics focuses on the ecology of

invasive species and their impacts in recipient social-ecological systems. It

discusses not only key advances and challenges within the traditional domain of invasion ecology,

but introduces approaches, concepts, and insights from many other disciplines such as complexity

science, systems science, and ecology more broadly. It will be of great value to invasion biologists

analyzing spread and/or impact dynamics as well as other ecologists interested in spread processes

or habitat management.

This book presents a comprehensive review of risk-based techniques that

help policy makers and regulators protect national interests from invasive

pests and pathogens before, at, and inside national borders. Selected from

the research corpus of the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk

Analysis at the University of Melbourne, this book provides solutions that

reflect scientific rigour coupled with practical, hands-on applications.

Future eventsnd th th22 – 26 October, 2017. 20 International Conference

on Aquatic Invasive Species(ICAIS): Global Action

against Aquatic Invasive species, Fort Lauderdale,

Florida.

The International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species (ICAIS) is organizing a conference on nd th'Global action against Aquatic invasive species', from Sunday, 22 to Thursday, 26 of October 2017

at Marriot Coral Springs Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The sessions and presentations include the review

of accumulated scientific knowledge; presentation of the latest field research; introduction of new

technological developments for prevention, monitoring and control; discussion of policy and

legislation; and mechanisms to raise awareness with the general public through education and

outreach initiatives. For more details please visit: http://www.icais.org/

rd th23 – 27 October, 2017. APFISN partner event in thconnection with 27 Session of the APFC Forestry

week, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Asia Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network

(APFISN), organizing a workshop on 'Habitat and

species specific protocols for management of forest

invasive species in the Asia – Pacific region', during the th rd27 Session of APFC Forestry Week from Monday, 23

thto Friday, 27 of October, 2017 at Bandaranaike

Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH),

Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka. For more detai ls please visi t :

http://www.fao.org/asiapacific/events.

06Invasives

Focusing on surveillance, stochastic modelling, intelligence gathering, decision making and risk

communication, the contents combine the strengths of risk analysts, mathematicians, economists,

biologists and statisticians. The book presents tested scientific solutions to the greatest challenges

faced by quarantine and biosecurity policy makers and regulators today.

For more information on the APFISN, please contact:

T.V. SajeevAPFISN CoordinatorKerala Forest Research InstitutePeechi-680 653, Kerala, India

Tel: 0487 2690320. Fax: 0487 2690391E-mail: tvsajeev@gmail.com

Chunxu HanSecretary GeneralInternational Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS)China National Committee for International Union of Biological Sciences (CCIUBS)Room C506, IOZ, CAS, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang, Beijing 100101, China

Tel/Fax: 86-10-64807295; Email: iszs2@ioz.ac.cn; hanchunxu@sina.com., www.globalzoology.org; www.iubs.org

Patrick B. DurstSenior Forestry OfficerFAO Regional Office Asia and the Pacific39 Phra Atit Road, Bangkok, 10200, Thailand

Tel: 66 2 697-4139. Fax: 66 2 697 4445E-mail: patrick.durst@fao.org