Throughout the United States there are many invasive species, or animals and plants that were introduced either accidentally or intentionally and have affected the environment negatively. The invasive species I have chosen to research is the purple loosestrife. The scientific name for the purple loosestrife is Lythrum salicaria. Purple loosestrife are aquatic plants and are found in wetlands, marshes etc. Purple loosestrife are called purple loosestrife because their flowers are a purple-magenta color. Purple loosestrife can have 30-50 stems in one rootstock. Purple loosestrife are large plants, they can grow up to 9 feet! Their leaves can be 1-3 inches long and it’s flowers have 5-7 petals. Purple loosestrife are native to Europe, Asia, …show more content…
Purple loosestrife can make marshes and wetlands monocultures. This means that there’s only one species of plant in the area. Purple loosestrife are getting rid multitudes of wetland plant species and this is making environments loose their biodiversity. Once purple loosestrife are established, they are very dense since many of them grow. This disturbs waterfowl nesting areas which is another negative affect because this means the offspring might not hatch in those areas anymore. Purple loosestrife are affecting all kinds of species, by disturbing waterfowl nesting areas there’s a chance they might not hatch and if this is a constant occurrence, the waterfowl population will plummet. Other organisms that purple loosestrife affect negatively are amphibians and algae. Since purple loosestrife grow very dense, it decreasing water flow. This is the reason why amphibians and algae are affected because they are aquatic species, even though amphibians live on land as well. Algae don’t have a lot of water to live in and the purple loosestrife are so dense it prevents algae from getting nutrients so they can live. Amphibians can easily go onto land but before metamorphosis happens, they are tadpoles. Tadpoles can only swim and if there’s barely any water flow, they can’t live and the amphibian population can decrease as well because of …show more content…
People have relentlessly tried to get rid of purple loosestrife. However, some efforts were more successful than others. For example, when the purple loosestrife population in the area is small, digging is a simple way to control the infestation. Digging means remove all the underground roots and stems of the plant. This method is only useful for young, small clusters of purple loosestrife. After digging them up, you dry them out or burn the purple loosestrife. Precautions you should take are making sure the clothing you have on doesn’t have any seeds or stems because this can reestablish the invasion. For larger infestations of purple loosestrife, you can use herbicides to chemically control them. You can apply herbicides to individual plants so you don’t damage nearby plants. After the herbicides are applied, professionals are needed to to remove the stems. Effective herbicides you can use are Glyphosate and Garlon to control immense purple loosestrife infestations. These methods are useful but the most effective is biological control or biocontrol. Biological control is utilizing something natural that doesn’t involve chemicals. Biological control is the best for huge infestations and long-term treatment. You can use insects that eat purple loosestrife because they dramatically decrease the population. The most successful insect species are Galerucella pusilla and Galerucella calmariensis, their larvae
any new plants or the selling of the weed in nurseries and join the Ontario
It is extremely important to keep the environment free of this invasive species. Amur Bush Honeysuckle becomes so abundant and grows very rapidly that it affects the growth of native plant species. Honeysuckle’s exudate prevents the growing of seeds that influences the growth, survival, and reproduction of other organisms. (Davisjg blog, 2015) Removing the species gives the chance of other native species to grow and better the environment. Furthermore, by restoring the environment of Honeysuckle it
Did you know that you happen to be surrounded by invasive species? These species are animals that come into areas they do not belong in. The articles, “Invaders among Us,” and “Invader Alert,” show this. They harm the environment, cost tons of money in damage and extermination, and they have to be prevented.
The purpose of this lab report is to see if the upsurges and the diminutions on the invasive species populace along with the inferences that modifications of the ecosystem as one.
As a result, their habitat is being destroyed, leaving them with no place to live and to nest their young. They are also being disturbed by human activities near their habitat.
Disease, pollution, and limited distribution are factors that threaten various plant and animal species. Also, if the current rate of forest loss continues, huge quantities of plant and animal species will disappear.
Invasive species often desecrate ecosystems, wreaking havoc in crucial, distinctive ecosystems such as the Mojave Desert, known for its exclusive wildlife. Not much is done about the many types of invasive plants that plague the Mojave Desert and the number of known invasive species of plants that affect the Mojave Desert is over one hundred (“Invasive Plants”). Invasive species of plants create many diverse issues in the ecosystem of the Mojave Desert such as being incompatible with local animal species, outcompeting local vegetation, and providing fuel for fires, increasing their frequency, that rage across the landscape, damaging the fragile desert ecosystem.
The Monterey Bay Sea Otters There are a number of sea otters who are an important part of this world and they form a fairly large population and that is why it is felt that they should be preserved at all costs. They are an important source of earning for the people and they are also important in the sense that they provide an important source of earning to the people and their is an entire group of people who use this field as their source of earning. Besides the population of these otters keeps fluctuating and it has to be maintained because if the number fluctuate exponentially and if they get out of hand they can damage the ecological and the environmental balance of the world. Similarly the fishing and the killing of these otters can cause the damage to the balance because just like the excess of anything can cause a problem similarly the excess supply can cause a lot of major problem as well. These otters vary in sizes and this is an unchartered territory with a number of parasites who do vary in species and sizes and they all have their purposes and pros and cons and they impact our life and the balance of the world in a different manner. As the size varies so does the importance of the otters and the smaller ones might be innocuous while the larger ones can be the source of food as well and some of the larger species can also act as the predators and they act as a deterrent for the other species because they keep the check over the other species. They may pose a hazard of some type in some of the cases but their habitats and their productive cycles are all the things that need to be considered by us as human beings. Similarly their eating habits and appetites can alter and impact our world and our actions and reactions an...
All discussions regarding the phenomenon of invasive species will inherently result in the consensus that they are an unwanted or an even evil entity. Ever since the age of exploration humans have been primary dispersers of these so called “exotic” species (Mooney and Cleland 2001). Famous examples include the release of cane toads in Australia (Urban et al., 2008); the rainbow trout (Fausch 2008) and the Japanese Kudzu vine in the southern U.S. (Blaustein 2001) and zebra mussels in the great lakes of Canada (Nalepa and Schloesser 1992). However, documented marine invasions compared with
Zipkin, Elise F., Kraft, Clifford E., Cooch, Evan G., and Sullivan, Patrick J., “When Can Efforts to Control Nuisance and Invasive Species Backfire?,” Ecological Applications, Vol. 19, No. 6 (2009): 1585-1595, accessed October 11, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40346271.
The term invasive species is described as a species that is introduced into an area in which it is not native. This species has the potential to cause a negative effect to the native species and other biotic factors in those surroundings (Invasive Species, n.d). Any kind of living organism can be a potential invasive species, including the seeds and eggs of an organism (Invasive Species, n.d). These species can be brought into an area any number of ways but are usually a result of human activity (Invasive Species, n.d). Although, it has been discovered that protected areas can be impacted by invasive species, possibly more so than non-protected areas (Hoopes et al., 2013).
Invasive species as a whole have become a nuisance to many habitats and ecosystems around the world. What defines an invasive species is the following. It must be a species that is foreign to the habitat it resides in, have no natural predators which allow it to reproduce in such a rapid manner, and out compete native animals of food and shelter (Rosenthal 2011). These characteristics are what create such high populations of these invasive species in various habitats around the globe.
The piece I chose to do my literary analysis on was the article, The Truth About Invasive Species, written by Alan Burdick. The article states that invasive species are all around us, but the area with the most prominent amount is the suburbs of Miami. It goes into detail about how abundant invasive species are in this area. Most people who would see a strange animal in their lawn or area would be bemused, however for the people of Southern Florida, this is a recurring scene. Burdick states that “virtually everyone in the South Florida, including Hardwick, has a neighbor with a backyard menagerie of lucrative critters on hold for resale”. Burdick describes both how an invasive species is introduced into an ecosystem, and the impact the have on other species upon their arrival.
Invasive species are organisms that have “moved into an area in which it previously did not exist” (Snider, Mahan, and Holloway).Often times, the introduction of invasive species is usually for the purpose of controlling a native species that is considered a pest, but sometimes they are introduced because people are importing them as pets or ornamental plants, and even sometimes they are introduced as a mistake (Evans). Many environmental scientists consider invasive species as the most dangerous cause of endangerment, because they affect the biodiversity of ecosystems and biological communities, thus affecting the natural food webs and habitats of species. Ehrlich actually contributes fifty-four percent of the one hundred and seventy extinct species, of which the causes of extinction have been reliably identified, directly to invasive species (Ehrlich 37). Therefore, the introduction of invasive species to any new environment causes a threat to the ecosystems, as the foreign species will fight to survive and ultimately thrive in its new environment, meaning that invasive species hold the risk of pushing native species into extinction (Ehrlich
Many of the issues of biodiversity loss can be traced back to human interaction to the environment. One of the issues is alteration and loss of habitats. A lot of this issue is based on the destruction of habitats and for the land to be used for human consumption. The land is either used up for agricultural use or for neighborhoods. Destroying habitats and building them for our own use can have a positive impact on our way of living but a negative impact on the environment. We would gain land for building land for crops and communities to be built. The habitat for the animals would be destroyed and the species local to the land would either relocate or die. There are restrictions to deforesting land and there are organizations to help protect the land.