After reading articles on how invasive species are bad, how they reduce biodiversity and cause extinction through out competing the less adapted and more specialised native species, I stumbled across 'An Essay on some Topics Concerning Invasive Species' (Brown and Sax, 2004). This article brought a new insight to how to think about invasive species for myself, it views the occurrence of invasions as 'unintentional, uncontrolled experiments' that could potentially provide insights into how human caused invasions shape and alter ecological and evolutionary processes, in some respect 'generating and maintaining biodiversity'.
The article seemed to tap into the complexities of thought behind the issue of invading species, associating it with our fear of the foreign, our xenophobic thoughts, and how these thoughts are manifested in our actions to prevent the invasion taking place or doing our utmost to remove it once the invasion has taken place. This though is backed by our own ideas of associating the original environment as pristine, where in fact the conditions may have been worse prior to the invasion, or by our own doing the invasion has been allowed to become established through our presence. The conditions worsened by our own selves, this judgement of prior conditions is based on a decoupling of nature from our society, where human beings take on a role of stewardship instead of embracing the fact that we too are as intrinsically involved in nature as any other aspect of this world.
Brown, J.H and Sax, D. F. (2004) 'An Essay on Some Topics Concerning Invasive Species' Austral Ecology, "9, 530-536 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2004.01340.x/pdf)
The article seemed to tap into the complexities of thought behind the issue of invading species, associating it with our fear of the foreign, our xenophobic thoughts, and how these thoughts are manifested in our actions to prevent the invasion taking place or doing our utmost to remove it once the invasion has taken place. This though is backed by our own ideas of associating the original environment as pristine, where in fact the conditions may have been worse prior to the invasion, or by our own doing the invasion has been allowed to become established through our presence. The conditions worsened by our own selves, this judgement of prior conditions is based on a decoupling of nature from our society, where human beings take on a role of stewardship instead of embracing the fact that we too are as intrinsically involved in nature as any other aspect of this world.
Brown, J.H and Sax, D. F. (2004) 'An Essay on Some Topics Concerning Invasive Species' Austral Ecology, "9, 530-536 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2004.01340.x/pdf)
Hi Will!
ReplyDeleteFirstly great post, I am particularly interested in how invasive species are impacting on our environment and believe it to important to highlight that they aren't all bad!
It is a common misconception that all invasive species reap havoc in the environments they colonize. However it is dependent on the dynamic capacity of both the invasive and native species to evolve that determines the response (Strauss,2011) This post provoked me to carry out some further reading around the topic to find an examples that were relevant to you.
An article by Alteri (1999) nicely conveyed how some invasive weeds actually possess environmental and economical benefits, through the important ecological role they play in agriculture. The weeds have the ability to harbour and support a complex of beneficial anthropods that aid in suppressing pest populations.
How you found an more examples of interest through your research?
Also through reading around this topic I have found that the terms 'invasive species' and 'exotic species' are used interchangeable. Would you define them as the same thing, as I do not think I would?
Altieri, M.A. (1999) ‘The ecological role of biodiversity in agroecosytems’ Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 74, 1-3, 19-31.
Strauss, S.Y. (2011) ‘Evolutionary response of natives to invaders’ in Simberloff, D. and M. Remjmánek (eds.) Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions, Los Angeles: California Press, 213-215.