DANBURY, CONN. — Connecticut biologist Dr. Leslie Mehrhoff, an internationally recognized authority on invasive plants, will discuss the spread of non-native species and their devastating impact on the state’s ecology and biodiversity in his lecture on Thursday, Sept. 23, at Western Connecticut State University.

Mehrhoff, director of the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE) project at the University of Connecticut, will draw upon four decades of scientific research on the distribution of plant species across eastern North America in his talk on “Invasive Plants: Threats to the Biota of Connecticut?” His presentation, part of the WCSU “Science at Night” lecture series, will be at 7 p.m. in Room 125 of the Science Building on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. A reception with light refreshments will be held in the Science Building Atrium following the lecture. Admission will be free and the public is invited to attend.

Mehrhoff has conducted extensive field studies to identify, photograph and collect plant species that are not native to New England and have spread aggressively in the region, often at the expense of vulnerable native species that have been crowded out by competing invasive plants. His talk will address the threat posed by such plant invasions and the sweeping ecological changes they produce that diminish the biological diversity of the environment.

Mehrhoff will review the history of plant invasions in Connecticut and surrounding regions. He will explain how invasive species have been introduced by accident or design to ecosystems where they were not previously found, as well as why non-native plants often succeed and spread in competition with established species native to the region.

His extensive field work on invasive plant species for IPANE has made him a popular lecturer at scientific conferences and public forums throughout the United States and abroad to discuss the problems that non-native plant invasions cause and offer guidance on effective strategies to document their spread. In his WCSU lecture, he will focus on the importance of early detection and rapid response in efforts to control invasive plants and prevent their spread to new areas.

“Early detection, coupled with a rapid assessment and a quick and effective response, is viewed as one of the best and cost-efficient ways of dealing with problems,” the IPANE website observes. “This is as true with non-native plant species that invade minimally managed habitats as it is with health and medicine or with agricultural pests.” Noting plant invasions typically gain public attention as an ecological problem only after the new species are well established, IPANE notes that it aims “to shift the perception of a problem to a point where management is less costly and has greater chance for success.”

The mission of IPANE is to create a comprehensive database of invasive and potentially invasive plants in New England, in a format that is accessible on the Internet and updated continually by a regional network of professionals and trained volunteers. The IPANE mission statement explains that the database is designed to “facilitate education and research that will lead to a greater understanding of invasive plant ecology and support informed conservation management.”

The project, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, uses current field records documenting dates and locations of invasive plant occurrences to generate maps that depict the distribution and spread of invasive plants across New England. “The intent is to provide public access to an online interactive resource that can act as an effective tool for students, researchers, land managers, conservationists, scientists, government agencies, the green industry and the interested public,” the IPANE project description notes. Professional contributors to the project are supplemented by volunteers trained by IPANE to inventory habitats throughout New England for the presence of invasive plant species.

Mehrhoff is a former member of the UConn Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology faculty and cochair of the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group. He previously served as supervising biologist at the Connecticut Geological and Natural History Survey, a division of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

The IPANE website may be accessed at http://nbii-nin.ciesin.columbia.edu/ipane. For information about the lecture, contact WCSU Professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences Dr. Thomas Philbrick at philbrickt@wcsu.edu or (203) 837-8773.

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