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Cause and effect essay invasive species
Cause and effect essay invasive species
What are the impacts of invasive species upon ecosystems
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In 1996, the Asian Longhorn Beetle made its way into the New York and New Jersey creating the decimation of the forests. The Asian Longhorn Beetle has so far caused the cutting of over 10,000 trees in New Jersey, and quarantine of 109 miles in New York today . The spread of this foreign beetle has created great impacts on the environment. The Asian Longhorn Beetle is an invasive specie, a harmful specie from another locations, mainly other countries, that has ended up in a foreign habitat. As time has progressed, invasive species have continued to come into our environment more frequently creating many unforeseen consequences. The relationship of invasive species within the United States’ environment and ecosystem has been changing ever since the arrival of the Europeans in the 1700s to present day. Due to these encounters with other species whether harmful or neutral, the majority, if not all, of the United States has been affected with the threatening encroachment of native species due to the industrialization of waterways and transportation. Invasive species only started to show up in the United States when the Europeans started to arrive. Beforehand, very limited contact was made in this particular region of the world, so very few invasive species came into North America. When the Europeans arrived in 1492, after Columbus discovered North America, they brought their own culture and essential food and animals with them. At first, it was just the basics of maize, wheat, pumpkins, and squash, but later on it also included cows, chickens, and horses . As more Europeans flocked into the country, non-native species began to appear in the area. Often, as non-native species appeared it led to unintended consequences of destroying gra... ... middle of paper ... ...gton, DC: Island, 2000. Newman, Andy. “If You’re a Tree-Hungry Beetle, Run.” The New York Times, May 14, 2013. Accessed August 30, 2013. http://nytimes.com/2013/05/14/if-youre-a-tree-hungry-beetle-run/. Niskern, Diana. Invasive species. Washington, D.C. (101 Independence Ave., S.E.): Science Reference Section, Science, Technology, and Business Division, Library of Congress, 2004. United States. Invasive Species: Plant Invaders. Vallejo, Calif: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region, 2012. Weber, Karl. Cane Toads and Other Rogue Species. New York: Public Affairs, 2010. 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 invasive species, the Burmese Python has done irreparable damage to the Everglades National Park in Florida. A steady decline in mammals has been observed since the introduction of Burmese pythons occurred. Burmese pythons were first introduced into the United States as part of the pet trade which then led to the escape or intentional release out into the wild. The first notation of these species arriving was in the year 2000. However, within just eleven years this invasive species had done such a large amount of damage to Florida’s Ecosystem that many species had gone almost completely extinct.
Invasive species do not only affect other species in their ecosystem, but also cost the United States more than one hundred and twenty million dollars each year in damages (“Cost” par. 2). Invasive species come in all different forms, and all have a negative impact on the environment. These species can come into a new area without being detected at first, but as time goes on their effects can soon be seen. Efforts are being made to prevent these invasive species from destroying fish population and habitat, but in order to be successful they need to be done on a much larger scale. In order to protect Wisconsin's waters, which are already infected with many invasive species that cause great damage to our bodies of water, more actions need to be taken. It is vital to remove all invasive species from Wisconsin’s waters because it will improve fish habitat, native fish population, and water quality.
Should exotic snakes or other large reptiles be allowed as pets in Florida? Right now these escaped/released feral reptiles create an estimated $120 billion in environmental damage each year according to David Steen on Slates Animal Blog.
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.
Global change is taking place every day; therefore, it is important to understand how human activities and behavior alters the biodiversity and functions of ecosystems. Alien species is a stimulator of major changes in ecosystems (Vila et al. 2011). An invasive species, is a non-native plant, animal, or fungus that moves to a new ecosystem in a foreign environment. Invasive ecology explores how the invasive species affect the economic, environmental, and human health on the new environment. For example, invasive ecology studies how an invasive species tends to crowd out and sometimes replace a native species (Richardson and Pysek 2008).
In early 2008, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Everglades National Park joined together to initiate a Florida Invaders, a program used to raise awareness about what’s being done and what we should do to help stop invasive flora and fauna from spreading. “The program was a good start but they should further raise awareness of the seriousness of the problem,” said Christine Beck, Ecology teaching assistant and FIU.
Black Mustard (Brassica nigra) and Sahara Mustard (Brassica tournefortii) are the main two species that are invading Southern California. Both of these plants were brought to the United States via jump dispersal by early settlers. They now disperse through out the west using their adhesive seeds that stick to animal fur and vehicle tires. Mustard thrives in disturbed areas where fire or other disturbance has cleared an area of its native vegetation. The mustard is part of the primary succession after the disturbance has happened. The seeds from these plants can lie dormant in the soil for up to 40 years waiting for a disturbance to allow them to germinate. Many efforts are underway to control the invasive plant, but at least 64% of it needs to be extracted each year to make head way for its eradication. From this essay I have learned how large of a problem the mustard invasion really is. I have also realized that for progress to be made with this problem, more needs to be done then is being done
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
(Sept. 23rd, 2011) Exotic Pets Turning Invasive, Threatening Florida. Tech Media. Retrieved March 10, 2014, from http://www.livescience.com/16204-florida-invasive-reptiles-amphibians.html. WYKC Channel 3 News (2014, February 14). Investigator: Exotic Animals Living in NE Ohio Neighbourhood [Video File].
Humans are responsible for almost all of the invasive plant and animal problems. Many of our problem invasives were (and often still are) planted as landscape plants in New Jersey. These include: Norway Maple, Japanese Barberry, Asian Bittersweet, English Ivy, Mimosa, Wisteria, Japanese Honeysuckle, Bugleweed, Bamboo, Day Lily, Purple Loosestrife, Tansy, and Dame's
There are no exact accepted characteristics of an invasive species however, there are qualities shared among them. These include the ability to grow fast, a tolerance to a wide array of habitats, dispersal of large numbers of small seeds, rapid germination periods, high resource productivity and the ability to compete with surrounding species. Invasive species are known to have a detrimental effect on the evolution of neighboring plant species within an ecosystem (Whitney and Gabler 2008, Webster et al. 2006). For an invasive species to become dominant it must be a greater competitor than the native species and have no predators in the environment (Thompson et al. 2009).
Invasive species exist in the world and are a very real threat to the American citizens ' way of life. The
“Exotic species are plants, animals or microbes that have been transported from one geographic region to another.” (5) They are moved from an area where their evolution balance is set, into an area where they may not have any natural competitors. Invasive or exotic species can cause a major impact to our environment. They can put ecosystems at risk by changing an entire environment, replace other species that are native to the environment, and even damage human activities such as fishing. (1) Once introduced into a new environment, Invasive species throw off the ecological balance of the area. They may not have natural predators and can outcompete natural organisms; giving them the opportunity for fast growth throughout the environment! (The nature Conservancy, 2004) Invasive species are even the one of the top reasons why some of our endangered species are threatened. The graph to the left shows that about 50 percent of threatened or affected endangered species were due to these exotic species! In the United States alone there are many invasive and exotic species already established! According to the Exotics in the Chesapeake, “At least 4,500 species have established free-living populations in the U.s.” (3) These species have even shown through in the waters around us!
Invasive species, (also known as invasive alien species or simply alien species) are defined as any organism (plant, animal, pathogen, or other living thing) that is alien (non-native) to an ecosystem, which can cause adverse economical, ecological, or health effects to native species and/or humans. The roots of these problems all stem from the massive negative ecological impact these organisms are having on the environment (CBD, 2009). For all animal extinctions where the cause is known since the 1600’s, invasive alien species have been a contributing factor 40% of the time (CBD, 2006); the second most contributing factor to extinctions after loss of habitat (GC, 2013). By eliminating native species through competition for resources, predation, and transmittal of disease, invasive species continue to reduce biodiversity in almost all ecosystems around the world (CBD, 2009). In the future, this problem may worsen, and if no action is taken, could lead to a cascading ecological problem so large that whole communities or even ecosystems could collapse.
Invasive species are crawling to places they shouldn’t be, making the world react in a dramatic way. It can be passed throughout a number of ways: by All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), canals and changes to waterways, gardening and landscaping, transportation of animal carcasses and raw wood, along with other items. The Red-Eared Slider travels by another unique way to become an invasive species: being dumped by pet owners. Since this happens so frequently, the Red-Eared Slider is on the 100 of the World’s Worst Invasive Species List.