Category: News

Interview in 24heures with Cleo Bertelsmeier about impacts of climate change on the movements of insects potentially threatening human health: Link

A news post on 24heures / Le matin dimanche on our research about invasive animals sold as exotic pets (in French). Link

The Swiss National Science Foundation has accorded the Swiss Postdoctoral fellowship 2021 to Lucie Aulus-Giacosa for the project “Does human-mediated species dispersal redefine global bioregions?”. Lucie will therefore remain in Cleo’s team for two additional years (1) to test if bioregions of ant species differ from vertebrates (birds, mammals, amphibians) and elucidate what determines the global boundaries of ant bioregions, (2) to test if potential novel bioregions in the Anthropocene are linked to human mobility, trade and environmental factors, and (3) to determine the consequences of species invasions at the global scale on functional diversity.

To that purpose, Lucie has got contacted by Sophie Gremaud a journalist of Heidi.news to talk about her project and the Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowship, to emphasize projects about biodiversity that got funded by the SNF. Here is the link towards the article : https://www.heidi.news/articles/sujet-fns-titre/gifts/qFKNGWztZfMpVPdrNeDF9o4tuiHmmLUQBYsCisJ5

Sébastien and Cleo have published a study about international trade flows and ant invasions.

Summary:

Globalization has led to the unintentional movement of thousands of species around the world, necessitating a better understanding of how species are spread by international trade to prevent new invasions. However, to date, the evidence implicating global trade in intercontinental species flows has been mixed. Here, we show that commonly used proxies of global trade, such as general and agricultural imports, fail to explain the invasion flows of alien ants from donor regions to the continental US. Analysis of 97 individual commodity flows revealed instead that plant and fruit imports – a small subset of all agricultural commodities – were primarily associated with invasion flows of ants. The transport patterns of all 95 other commodities, including most “agricultural” commodities, differed from those of alien ants. Our findings highlight the need to determine precisely which commodities serve as introduction pathways for a particular taxon in or flows and identify likely source regions of future invasions in a world of evolving trade relationships.

Citation: Ollier, S. & Bertelsmeier, C. (2022) Precise knowledge of commodity trade is needed to understand invasion flows. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. doi:10.1002/fee.2509

Cleo was on a radio show talking about ants and her book on conflicts in insect societies (in French), 23.-27.05.2022.
There are 5 episodes of around 10-15 min:
Monday : https://www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2022/audio/les-fourmis-1-5-25825532.html

Tuesday :  https://www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2022/audio/les-fourmis-2-5-25825811.html

Wednesday : https://www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2022/audio/les-fourmis-3-5-25826131.html

Thursday : https://www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2022/audio/les-fourmis-4-5-25826382.html

Friday :  https://www.rts.ch/audio-podcast/2022/audio/les-fourmis-5-5-25826672.html