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100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species
Ant writes "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species list says: 'Invasive species have been recognised globally as a major threat to biodiversity (the collected wealth of the world's species of plants, animals and other organisms) as well as to agriculture and other human interests. It is very difficult to choose 100 invasive species, from around the world, that really are "worse" than any others. Species and their interactions with ecosystems are very complex. Some species may have invaded only a restricted region, but have a huge probability of expanding, and causing further great damage (e.g. see Boiga irregularis: the brown tree snake). Other species may already be globally widespread, and causing cumulative but less visible damage. Many biological families or genera contain large numbers of invasive species, often with similar impacts; in these cases one representative species was chosen. The one hundred species aim to collectively illustrate the range of impacts caused by biological invasion.'"
For places where cats are not normal, like Australia and other islands, cats have caused a huge amount of damage to the native fauna. Cats are wiping out small animals and birds, either through predation or through competition.
One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure.
> Apparently #38 is the common cat. I hadn't thought of cats as invasive, but I'm surprised that it's considered so invasive.
>I imagine they are so high on the list because of their numbers, and few people think of them in this way.
no, it's because when they go feral they kill fucking everything.
You obviously read the article, but didn't go to the effort of trying to comprehend the explanatory paragraph.
Nah, homosapiens should have been #43... The list is alphabetical.
Reported only yesterday, a ladybird being sold around the world for pest control may out-compete
s tm
native ladybirds, and eat the eggs of butterflies
and lacewings.
They also blemish soft fruits and their acrid defensive chemicals taint wines.
Harmonia axyridis - the Harlequin Ladybird
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/3715120.
It's alphabetical by formal specise name, which is why Acridotheres tristis is number 3, and Rattus rattus is near Salmo trutta!
... The one hundred species aim to collectively illustrate the range of impacts caused by biological invasion."
s i=108&fr=1&sts= seems to mention New Zealand a lot. It states that in Singapore, where they cheered me up no end as I walked to work every morning, they are no problem. This list is some kind of Kiwi consipiracy. And in that part of the world they don't have a particularly good record with animals do they?
Wow! There are no flies on you are there? (are flies on the list?) Why didn't they say that? All they say by way of methodology is "It is very difficult to choose 100 invasive species, from around the world,
Loveliness != good for the environment!
The indictment http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?
New Zealand? Oh, wait a minute! http://www.issg.org/people.html#Contacts
I've seen some forrests completely destroyed by rhododendrons. Invasive plants are possibly more damaging than invasive animals, in that they change the ecosystem at its very base.
Example of human fuckery (a bad thing): Kudzu.
Read up on both and tell me that the latter is a simple matter of "survival of the fittest".
The list appears to be alphabetical. Homo Sapiens should be under H.
-- Stephen.
There are probably two ways of judging how bad an invasive species is: the negative effects on other "native" species and ecology, and how hard it is to eradicate. As an example lets look at the salt cedar , which is bad on both of these counts.
This plant is a huge success of natural selection. It can survive in all sorts of environments, and scales wonderfully eeking a survival in the middle of the desert as a shrub or thrive in wet forest as a tree, but always leeching every and all the resources available to it. It has an extensive root system which soaks up all the water available, which not only chokes off local trees, but prevents ground water from replenishing streams and aquifers, hurting the ecology of the entire region. It is near worthless as a source of food for animals, unlike the plants which it displaces.
Getting rid of it is not quite as easy as using a chainsaw. As I mentioned, it has an extensive root system which survives and resprouts after the above-ground portion of the plant has been cut down. The salt ceder also salinates the soil, making harder for other plants to regrow if the infestation has been there a long time before removal. Most places resort to pesticide to get rid of it, either by spraying areas that are completely infested, or by poisoning the trunks of individual trees that have been cut down. Also, "just chainsawing it", is not as easy as it sounds. It is an extremely time consuming task. Likewise, pesticides are not something that you want to go overboard with. In general these trees have been spreading over decades and we are just now getting around to dealing with them, so you don't want to just rip out all the salt cedars as fast as possible without a plan for reintroducing native plants.
Here in New Mexico, the salt cedar is concidered to be one of the greatest threats to our water supply, and a great deal of effort is being made to eradicate it, and progress is being made, but it is necisarrily slow.
well i've never heard of kudzu before and i don't live in the south. but i read your link and actually this is exactly what i'm talking about. i see kudzu vines kill trees, but there are good things that have resulted from it as well.
positive things your article mentions:
-- it has sweet smelling blossoms so people planted it because they liked it
-- during the great depression the soil conservation service used kudzu for erosion control.
-- people have "raised Angora goats in fields of kudzu which would otherwise be considered wasted land. The goats keep the kudzu from spreading further while producing profitable milk and wool products."
-- Diane Hoots of Dahlonega, Georgia has developed a company to market her kudzu products which include kudzu blossom jelly and syrup, kudzu baskets, and books.
-- Henry and Edith Edwards of Rutherfordton, North Carolina have found many uses for kudzu over the past 30 years. Henry produces over 1,000 bales of kudzu hay each year on his Kudzu Cow Farm. The hay is high in nutritive value
-- Current research may lead to new medicines made from kudzu, but for now only hamsters and mice can benefit from these drugs. Research with laboratory animals at Harvard Medical School has revealed that a drug extracted from kudzu root may help in the treatment of alcoholism. The drug is based on a 2,000 year old Chinese herbal medicine.
my point is that things change. old things are destroyed and new things are brought in. maybe you don't like the new thing but maybe someone else does.
the invasive species thing environmentalists get excited about is the weird. if you don't like a bug or an animal, i don't have a problem with you trying to keep it out of an area or calling it a pest and trying to kill it. but to say that its not natural or humans are destroying the environment is just weird. horses aren't native to north america but i don't hear environmentalists complaining about them.
right because no time in the history of the planet has one species moved from one area to another.
Pre-historically this would occur much slower, so native species would evolve to compete with the invaders.
the only good reason to have a list like this is if these are pests messing with the economy. otherwise who cares?
I care. I care because I battle those d---ed tiger mosquitos regularly. Also, if you look at the list, many of them are economically harmful.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
For all those who complain that #1 is a tree, the list appears to be alphabetically ordered.
Where law ends, tyranny begins -- William Pitt