‘Everything is quagga mussel now’: can invasive species be stopped? – podcast | Science

On a recent trip to Lake Geneva in Switzerland, biodiversity journalist Phoebe Weston witnessed the impact of one of the most powerful invasive species on the planet, the quagga mussel. In just a decade, this mollusk, native to the Ponto-Caspian region of the Black Sea, has caused irreversible changes beneath the surface of this picturesque lake. While environmentalists estimate that invasive species play a major role in more than 60 percent of plant and animal extinctions, stopping them in their tracks is nearly impossible. Phoebe tells Madeleine Finlay how invasive species are spreading, how conservationists are trying to combat them, and why some think a radical new approach is needed.