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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.'"
What, no snakeheads on this list?
What does 'invasive' mean? It means its in an area where it doesn't 'naturally belong', in this context, and 'is doing damage'.
The point is, tree's are exceptionally good at biological warfare. A non-native tree in a distant land, with no competitors, can utterly decimate local species.
Sorta like Americans in Baghdad, but I digress..
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Hopefully it won't occur to him that you use a urine-based biometric reader.
Back in the day (c. 1987) a friend (Jenny) was working on another friend's (Bill) computer writing her paper. Bill had cats named Jeremy and Silver. While Jenny was writing the paper in WordStar, Silver walked across the keyboard and managed to close the program without saving, which if I recall was Ctrl-K, X with maybe an N necessary to answer "Do you want your cat to destroy your work?"
Being the good old DOS days however, Bill was able to use debug to retrieve the paper from the computer's memory, saving hours of retyping. In many ways, I miss those days.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
This is something to be proud of, not bemoan.
It always pisses me off when people live in some fantasyland where "nature" is always in perfect harmony and humans no nothing but upset it.
Extinctions, invasions and wild changes in the biosphere are intrinsic in nature. Humans are not somehow "outside of it". We are part of it and there is no valid ethical argument saying we should not strive to survive just like every other lifeform out there.
This may not have been the intent of the parent post but I've heard others who have this "humans are evil" bias. I've always wondered why they don't just go on a murder/suicide bender.
Blaze a trail to the New World
When you release beetles to consume aphids, for instance, it is a bad assumption to think that the beetles will take care of the aphid problem, and then having exhausted their food source, will then simply die off or dwindle to an acceptable-to-humans number- more likely, they'll choose alternate food sources, which may include things humans did not intend for them to eat. I'm certainly not the sort to suggest that all human modification of the environment is awful and we must leave all of nature pristine- for one thing, it's not as though animals and plants themselves leave nature unspoiled. Also, in certain cases like food crops and game animals, invasive species have been extremely beneficial to humans. While they might have made the list here, I think many humans are perfectly fine with lakes and rivers brimming with largemouth bass and trout. In the same way, while "invasive," and sometimes even destructive, few humans would put the domestic cat on the same level of infamy as Dutch elm disease, kudzu, or fire ants- in fact, they've traditionally been valued for controlling populations of two of the other members on the list. But, we must remember that animals and plants are not machines that can be operated to do the will of humanity- however much we may think ourselves their masters, at a higher level they obey their genes. And their genes want them to reproduce without limit.
On the subject of deliberately introduced invasive species, this entry sounds like a truly amazing creature:
The predatory "rosy wolf snail" (also known as the "cannibal snail") is native to the south-eastern United States, especially Florida. It has been introduced to islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, also to Bermuda and the Bahamas, as a putative biological control agent for another alien species, the giant African snail (Achatina fulica). There is no good evidence that control of A. fulica has been effected, but E. rosea has caused the extinction of numerous endemic partulid tree snails in French Polynesia and has been heavily implicated in the extinction or at least decline of other species of snails wherever it has been introduced, notably in Hawaii. Common Names: cannibal snail, Rosige Wolfsschnecke, rosy wolf snail
I mean, I just would like to see this thing in action- you tend to think of most predatory animals as made for pursuit, capable of bursts of speed to chase down prey. Then you have this snail....
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."