{"id":75763,"date":"2020-10-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-doctoral-student-aims-to-help-farmers-in-puerto-rico-reduce-impact-of-invasive-iguanas\/"},"modified":"2020-10-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T00:00:00","slug":"uri-doctoral-student-aims-to-help-farmers-in-puerto-rico-reduce-impact-of-invasive-iguanas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2020\/10\/uri-doctoral-student-aims-to-help-farmers-in-puerto-rico-reduce-impact-of-invasive-iguanas\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 doctoral student aims to help farmers in Puerto Rico reduce impact of invasive iguanas"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 21, 2020 \u2013 Invasive green iguanas have become widespread on many islands in the Caribbean, and farmers have complained that the lizards are eating their crops. To determine the extent of the problem in Puerto Rico, 溏心vlog免费B站 doctoral student Christina De Jes\u00fas Villanueva is undertaking an interdisciplinary study of the lizards and their impact on farming in the U.S. territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreen iguanas have been in Puerto Rico since at least the 1960s, but their population grew in the 1990s and 2000s, and that got some attention from government agencies,\u201d said De Jes\u00fas Villanueva, who lives in Puerto Rico and studies biological and environmental sciences at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cIt has the potential for being a big problem for agriculture, but nothing is being done about it. So I\u2019m trying to understand the relationship farmers have with the iguanas.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Jes\u00fas Villanueva, who was recently awarded a Switzer Fellowship, spent most of 2019 interviewing farmers, growing crops in test plots, testing methods of keeping iguanas away from crops, and studying the ecology of the lizards, which are native to Central America but have spread widely through the pet trade.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A green iguana feeds in a farm field.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think the iguanas are fascinating because they arrive in new places and find ways to thrive,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if I were a farmer trying to grow a hectare of papayas and iguanas ate it, I\u2019d be very angry and probably wouldn\u2019t like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The animals are good climbers and spend most of their time living in the crown of trees. They seldom descend to the ground except to nest and to feed on crops.<\/p>\n

溏心vlog免费B站 half of the farmers De Jes\u00fas Villanueva interviewed expressed negative feelings toward the lizards, though many of those who did not have negative feelings had found a way to combat the iguanas or did not have iguanas living nearby.<\/p>\n

She learned that green iguanas eat about 20 different crops grown in Puerto Rico, especially squash, papaya, watermelon, lettuce, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and passionfruit. She also discovered that two of the three management methods that farmers use to try to keep iguanas from their crops \u2013 spreading netting over their fields and spraying their crops with an oil-based pesticide \u2013 were not particularly effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cFencing the iguanas out was the only method that significantly increased crop yields,\u201d she said. \u201cOn a large scale, it could save them a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although she is still analyzing her data, De Jes\u00fas Villanueva plans to develop Puerto Rico\u2019s first assessment of the economic impact that green iguanas are having on agriculture. She will also disseminate information to agriculture extension offices about the crops the iguanas are most likely to eat and the results of her tests of iguana management techniques.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be useful information that the farmers can use for planning,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can use it to decide whether to grow a particular crop or use a particular management method.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, she hopes her research will provide a boost to the nation\u2019s farmers, for whom she has developed a great appreciation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers have been talking about this issue for years, but it\u2019s not getting any attention,\u201d she said. \u201cFood security is more important on an island like Puerto Rico, especially with the hurricanes we\u2019ve seen lately. Food is the base of everything, it connects us all, so this sector needs some attention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 21, 2020 \u2013 Invasive green iguanas have become widespread on many islands in the Caribbean, and farmers have complained that the lizards are eating their crops. To determine the extent of the problem in Puerto Rico, 溏心vlog免费B站 doctoral student Christina De Jes\u00fas Villanueva is undertaking an interdisciplinary study […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-75763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}