• Skip to Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Search

Indiana University Indiana University IU

Open Search
  • Who We Are
    • Leadership
    • Advisory Boards
    • Researchers
    • Staff
    • Mission and Vision
  • Who We Work With
    • Local Governments
      • ERI Toolkit
      • Hoosier Resilience Index
      • Webinars
      • Resilience Cohort
    • Educators
    • Residents
      • Hoosier Resilience Heroes
    • Researchers
    • Careers
  • Research
    • Wildlife Migration
    • Pests and Invasive Species
    • Climate and Water Systems
    • Forests and Green Infrastructure
    • Human Impacts and Attitudes
    • Communication, Education, and Outreach
    • ERI Data Resources
  • Tools & Resources
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
    • Newsletters
  • Support Our Work
  • Contact
  • Donate

Environmental Resilience Institute
Part of the Prepared for Environmental Change Grand Challenge

  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • Leadership
    • Advisory Boards
    • Researchers
    • Staff
    • Mission and Vision
  • Who We Work With
    • Local Governments
    • Educators
    • Residents
    • Researchers
    • Careers
  • Research
    • Wildlife Migration
    • Pests and Invasive Species
    • Climate and Water Systems
    • Forests and Green Infrastructure
    • Human Impacts and Attitudes
    • Communication, Education, and Outreach
    • ERI Data Resources
  • Tools & Resources
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
    • Newsletters
  • Support Our Work
  • Search
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Home
  • News & Events
  • News
  • Archive
  • 2019
  • Scientist measures the impact of invasive species using IU’s Carbonate and Big Red 2

Scientist measures the impact of invasive species using IU’s Carbonate and Big Red 2

By: IT News and Events

Friday, June 07, 2019

Decorative - a headshot of Ranjan
Institute Fellow Ranjan Muthukrishnan

As we head into summer, we’ll inevitably start to see more and more movie trailers in which monsters, robots, and aliens overrun a variety of landscapes, prompting inhabitants (and generally a superhero or two) to fight back to reclaim their territory. If you’re in Indiana, you’ll also likely start to seeing common invasive plants, like Japanese Honeysuckle or Garlic Mustard, appearing in your yard and garden.

Invasive species generally have the ability to adapt to new surroundings easily, grow quickly, and reproduce rapidly, all unchecked in the absence of natural predators and other things that keep their populations under control. These qualities allow invasive species to take over an area formerly populated by a whole range of diverse species; thus, such invasions are responsible for roughly 42% of all species listed as threatened or endangered. Studying biodiversity can illuminate how some groups of species can coexist within environments, while others destroy everything in their paths.

Ecologists study the relationships between living things and their environments; one of the field’s foundational questions asks, “why are there so many species?” Current estimates quantify the number of species on earth at 8.7 million; while many theoretical answers to this question exist, a clear explanation remains elusive. Ranjan Muthukrishnan, an Invasive Species Ecology Fellow at the Environmental Resilience Institute, who arrived at IU in the fall of 2018, runs simulations to test theories about the relationship between invasive species and phenotypic plasticity.

Read the full article

Additional links and resources

  • ERI INTRANET
  • GRAND CHALLENGES
Donation button to Give Now to Environmental Resilience Institute
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Indiana University

Accessibility | Privacy Notice | Copyright © 2021 The Trustees of Indiana University

  • Who We Are
    • Leadership
    • Advisory Boards
    • Researchers
    • Staff
    • Mission and Vision
  • Who We Work With
    • Local Governments
      • ERI Toolkit
      • Hoosier Resilience Index
      • Webinars
      • Resilience Cohort
    • Educators
    • Residents
      • Hoosier Resilience Heroes
    • Researchers
    • Careers
  • Research
    • Wildlife Migration
    • Pests and Invasive Species
    • Climate and Water Systems
    • Forests and Green Infrastructure
    • Human Impacts and Attitudes
    • Communication, Education, and Outreach
    • ERI Data Resources
  • Tools & Resources
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
    • Newsletters
  • Support Our Work
  • Contact
  • Donate