Global commerce and travel moves everything from running shoes, money, cars, and iPods. The implications of this “brave new world” have caused some people concern, particularly with the worldwide economic collapse. Relatively few people have noticed a more menacing form of globalization – the transport of alien plants and animals into virtually every ecosystem on the planet. Ecologists sometimes refer to this as the “‘homogenization’ of the world’s ecosystems or "biological pollution".
Aliens… aka, non-native, exotic, introduced, or non-indigenous species. These terms apply to any plant animal, or microbe found outside of its natural range. They are organisms in places they don’t belong – an assault that could bring along the greatest mass extinction of species since the age of the dinosaurs. And yet… the ‘genocide of native species’ continues, unabated, in plain sight.
Species have always been restless, dispersing and migrating to new habitats. Living things continually test the boundaries of their ranges. Natural movement and range expansion is typically very slow and rare… only as far as organisms could swim, fly, walk, or could be transported in feces and pellage. That is, until we came along. Now with increased traffic to every remote corner of the earth, almost everything can move anywhere, leaping over previously impassable boundaries.
To a large extent, organisms are held in check in their native habitats by their native predators and competitors, which have evolved ways to prey upon and compete with, those organisms. Beyond their native range, free from familiar constraints, alien species are free to run amok, particularly in host habitats with climates similar to their native range.
Many of us never notice the uninvited visitors in our midst until the situation becomes a crisis, but ignorance is seldom bliss. Plants seem gentle enough, but they can be just as menacing as any vertebrate. They can fight for resources, use chemical warfare, and even strangle each other! And they do... kudzu, melaleuca, miconia, yellow starthistle...the list goes on and on.
We are in the throes of a vast and little-noticed ecological upheaval. Worldwide, non-native, invasive species are already the second greatest cause of extinction behind habitat destruction. Don’t believe me? If your property has been ravaged by sudden oak death, yellow starthistle, or feral hogs, then you know the impacts that non-native, invasive pathogens, plants, and animal can inflict on our beautiful "Golden State" native ecosystems.
Lest you imagine that invasive species is simply an ecological crisis, a group of scientists estimates the annual cost of all invasive species within the U.S. alone to be more than US$138 billion – and that estimate is already a decade old. I’d say that qualifies as an economic crisis.
The cultural effects of alien species can be just as profound. Old World human diseases such as smallpox and malaria precipitated one of the most profound cultural crises in history. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), epidemic cholera… the hits keep coming!
… don’t even get me started about impacts to our estuarine and marine ecosystems and commercial fisheries.
Now that we know the destructive power of invasive species, will this great reshuffling continue unabated? What is it worth, to be more cautious in our individual actions as travelers and consumers? To be more cautious as societies watching over the vehicles and vessels that inter-connect us? What will it cost not to?
What can be done? Who will serve as a beacon of hope amidst a sea of “biological pollution”?
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Nah, it’s Cal-IPC….
Aliens… aka, non-native, exotic, introduced, or non-indigenous species. These terms apply to any plant animal, or microbe found outside of its natural range. They are organisms in places they don’t belong – an assault that could bring along the greatest mass extinction of species since the age of the dinosaurs. And yet… the ‘genocide of native species’ continues, unabated, in plain sight.
Species have always been restless, dispersing and migrating to new habitats. Living things continually test the boundaries of their ranges. Natural movement and range expansion is typically very slow and rare… only as far as organisms could swim, fly, walk, or could be transported in feces and pellage. That is, until we came along. Now with increased traffic to every remote corner of the earth, almost everything can move anywhere, leaping over previously impassable boundaries.
To a large extent, organisms are held in check in their native habitats by their native predators and competitors, which have evolved ways to prey upon and compete with, those organisms. Beyond their native range, free from familiar constraints, alien species are free to run amok, particularly in host habitats with climates similar to their native range.
Many of us never notice the uninvited visitors in our midst until the situation becomes a crisis, but ignorance is seldom bliss. Plants seem gentle enough, but they can be just as menacing as any vertebrate. They can fight for resources, use chemical warfare, and even strangle each other! And they do... kudzu, melaleuca, miconia, yellow starthistle...the list goes on and on.
We are in the throes of a vast and little-noticed ecological upheaval. Worldwide, non-native, invasive species are already the second greatest cause of extinction behind habitat destruction. Don’t believe me? If your property has been ravaged by sudden oak death, yellow starthistle, or feral hogs, then you know the impacts that non-native, invasive pathogens, plants, and animal can inflict on our beautiful "Golden State" native ecosystems.
Lest you imagine that invasive species is simply an ecological crisis, a group of scientists estimates the annual cost of all invasive species within the U.S. alone to be more than US$138 billion – and that estimate is already a decade old. I’d say that qualifies as an economic crisis.
The cultural effects of alien species can be just as profound. Old World human diseases such as smallpox and malaria precipitated one of the most profound cultural crises in history. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), epidemic cholera… the hits keep coming!
… don’t even get me started about impacts to our estuarine and marine ecosystems and commercial fisheries.
Now that we know the destructive power of invasive species, will this great reshuffling continue unabated? What is it worth, to be more cautious in our individual actions as travelers and consumers? To be more cautious as societies watching over the vehicles and vessels that inter-connect us? What will it cost not to?
What can be done? Who will serve as a beacon of hope amidst a sea of “biological pollution”?
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Nah, it’s Cal-IPC….
I like what you've written - teaching ENVS at Emory for a couple of years, I learned that 75% of our waste in the US is from mining - basically we are sending Appalachia into our landfills. I've always been a huge advocate of personal lifestyle choices that reflect a commitment to ecological and social sustainability, but I know that that has to go hand in hand with powerful regulation to control bigger players who otherwise would continue despoiling without a second thought. I'm wondering how much this approach applies to the invasive species situation - can we know how much destruction is caused by unwitting individuals versus giant corporations (I of course would like to blame the latter, but then again, I'm biased!). What are your thoughts? You're the expert...
ReplyDelete:) Jess