Emerald ash borer beetles have a new foe

A new study from the University of Minnesota found that several species of parasitic fungi are effective at killing emerald ash borers.

Decades of research have gone into developing management tools to protect ash trees from the invasive and destructive beetles. Ash trees are important in urban areas where they can comprise up to 20 percent of the urban forest, and they’re a dominant tree in Minnesota’s northern marshlands. Additional tools are needed to protect ash trees in these remote areas where other forms of management are less feasible.

One tool that has shown promise at slowing the growth of emerald ash borer populations is the autodissemination device, which traps beetles and coats them with spores of insect-killing fungi. Once covered in spores, the beetles can fly out of the trap and spread spores to one another through mating.

The study found:

• All of the fungi used in the study were successful at infecting emerald ash borer beetles.
• The lifespan of emerald ash borer beetles varied depending on which fungus they were exposed to in the trap.
• Three Minnesota-sourced fungi, and one commercially available fungus, reliably reduced emerald ash borer beetle lifespan and were consistently seen sprouting from dead emerald ash borer beetles.

The findings were published in Forests.

Goats can be helpful in woodland restoration

Goats are being used to manage invasive common buckthorn in Midwestern woodlands. A University of Minnesota research team examined the effectiveness of “goat browsing”—targeted grazing using goats—as part of a broader restoration strategy and looked at the potential for collateral damage on native vegetation.

The researchers performed field experiments in which buckthorn-dominated areas were or were not treated with goat browsing across eight sites. All vegetation—including buckthorn, other invasive species and native species—was sampled before, immediately after and from one to three years after browsing ended.

The study produced various findings:

• Targeted grazing is one more potential tool for woodland restoration. Situations when it may be most useful include limited availability of human labor, prevalence of stakeholders that are strongly opposed to herbicide use, and steep or rugged terrain.
• Conversely, use of goats may be ill suited where there are key native species at high risk of negative impacts, such as threatened or endangered plants, shrubs, or juvenile trees, or other sensitive organisms.
• A key concern of land managers about targeted grazing is potential negative impacts on native plants. While such impacts can be substantial in the short term, the study found that over longer time frames, targeted browsing by goats can increase native plant diversity.

This study was published in Restoration Ecology.

Predicting who will develop blood clots

Blood clots that form in veins—known as venous thromboembolisms—are a top cause of illness and death worldwide. Despite the threat they pose to human health, researchers have never fully understood why these clots develop in some people but not others. A recent study led by researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health sheds light on this mystery by identifying previously unknown blood proteins that may help predict these life-threatening blood clots.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 20,000 adults across four long-term studies, tracking participants for between 10 and 29 years. Using advanced technology to analyze blood proteins, researchers measured thousands of proteins in blood samples collected at the start of the studies and examined how those protein levels related to future risk of developing blood clots. The findings were then tested in a separate group of nearly 40,000 participants to confirm the results.

The study identified 23 proteins linked to blood clot risk, including 15 that had not previously been associated with blood clots.

Other biological pathways were linked to clots. Many of these proteins are involved in processes like immune function, inflammation, and tissue repair—not just blood clotting—suggesting broader drivers of clot risk.

Genetic analyses suggested that some of the newly discovered proteins may play a direct role in causing blood clots, rather than simply signaling risk.

The study was published in the journal Circulation.

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