In biology, invasiveness is often thought of as a condition of geography. Something that isn't native to one place somehow shows up there it makes itself at home and it begins to take over. But in this vastly interconnected world, plants and animals from one place are always finding their way somewhere else. So researchers are trying to better understand what makes something more likely to be successful once it arrives in a new habitat.
Carina Donne is a PhD student at Colorado State University where he's studying soil microbiology. He was previously an undergraduate and master's student at the University of Iowa, where he studied the evolution and ecology of New Zealand mud snails.
Maurine Neiman is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Iowa, where much of her labs work is focused on the mud snail.
