Invasive Species and Global Climate Change (eBook)

Lewis Ziska is an Associate Professor in the Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. After graduating from the University of California, Davis, he began his career as a Smithsonian fellow, and then took up residence as the Project Leader for global climate change at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines before a 24-year career at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service. He has worked primarily on documenting the impact of climate change and rising carbon dioxide levels on: Crop selection for CO2 responsiveness to improve production; Climate and agronomic pests, including chemical management; Climate, plant biology and public health impacts on food security with a focus on nutrition and pesticide use. Dr. Ziska is a contributor to the 2014 International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (Food Security Chapter, https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WGIIAR5-Chap7_FINAL.pdf) and is a contributor to the AR6 report (due June 2022). He is also a contributor to the 2014 and 2018 National Climate Assessment (NCA) (Public Health Chapter and Air quality chapter respectively); and, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. His most recent book is: Agriculture, Climate Change and Food Security in the 21st Century: Our Daily Bread, through Cambridge Scholars publishing.

Climate change is very much a current topic for debate. What this 352-page book explores is the link between climate change and the rise of invasive species - how both interrelate, so altering global commerce with the subsequent introduction of unwanted species into new geographical areas.

The range of invasive species covered includes several plant species of less relevance to professional pest managers, however the change in the distribution of insects is well covered. Vector-borne diseases spread by such insects as mosquitoes and flies are of particular concern, with sections covering malaria, dengue, Lyme disease as well as hantavirus, spread by rodents.