Hurricanes may have spread invasive species across Florida

Recent hurricanes may have spread invasive plants and animals across Florida, so federal researchers released a map to help people track them.

A preliminary map released by the U.S. Geological Survey for Hurricane Helene shows there are 222 possible nonnative species that may have spread through storm flooding — 90 are considered invasive, such as alligator weeds.

The preliminary map for Hurricane Milton shows 114 possible nonnative species, including 56 invasive, had the potential to spread.

“We’re focusing on flood movement … so high-water, high-flow events that potentially create this corridor for species to move naturally — what we call ‘natural dispersal,’ so it’s unassisted by humans,” said Ian Pfingsten, author of the map and a botanist with USGS.

Because Florida was hit by two hurricanes weeks apart, Pfingsten said there is a lot of overlap when it comes to species that may have been spread, such as the Burmese python.

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Some other species of concern include the giant apple snail, which is an agricultural pest, and the Asian swamp eel, which impacts populations of native species where it has established.

USGS said both species pose a risk to human health because they can carry parasites.

“The hope with these maps is to provide that information to people that care about managing species that could cause impacts in their area, so that they can pinpoint where to potentially look for them once they arrive and address the issue before it becomes a high-cost management problem.”

Invasive plants and animals affect people in everyday life just as much as they do the environment.

Pfingsten said invasive plants can lead to fish kills in ponds and certain mussels can actually clog the pipes of water pumps.

“Each species is contextual and how it causes these effects that could affect our economy, could affect our health and could affect just the overall health of the ecosystem, as well,” Pfingsten said.

The researchers used existing data on known locations for non-native species combined with recent storm flood data to form the maps. Pfingsten said he hopes to update the maps in January.