Exploring How Microbial Interactions Can Be Exploited For Biocontrol?

A species that is introduced to an ecosystem by humans can harm ecosystems in many ways. Animals that are introduced into a new area, could hunt a main food source for some animals, causing that population to decrease. Plants could be poisonous, or need to feed off of other plants. Species introduced into an ecosystem by humans through off the natural balance of the wildlife.

According to Silent Spring, the United States Office of Plant Introduction has introduced about 200,000 species of plants from around the world, and almost half of the 180 major insect enemies of plants are accidental imports. According to Campbell’s Biology Textbook, these imported animals are known as invasive species, organisms that become established outside their native range. Carson states that often when a species is brought to an area they are not native to, the lack of natural enemies causes the species to become dominant and extremely abundant. These invasions are likely to be permanent, however as a way to “buy time” humans have turned to quarantine and massive chemical campaigns, instead of trying to prevent new invasions. As Carson continuously stresses chemical use can have unwanted consequences and she urges people to use the basic knowledge of animal populations and their relations to their surroundings and other species to prevent them from becoming overly dominate. For example, according to Campbell’s textbook, higher diversity communities are more often resistant to invasive species because the species is less likely to dominate over the native species. This was proven by scientists working in Long Island Sounds off the Coast of Connecticut created communities of different diversity consisting of sessile marine invertebrates, and examined how vulnerable the experimental communities were to an invasive species: the exontic tunicate. They found the tunicate was four times more likely to survive in lower diversity communities than higher diversity communities. It was concluded the diverse communities captured more of the resources available, leaving fewer resources for the invader. It is firmly believed by Carson that people should do much more simple research before transferring a foreign species to a new habitat to not only prevent a

Most of the time people bring non-native species into new environment by purpose. The people who bring them to their new environments mostly aren’t aware that they could harm their new surroundings. When trying to reverse the effects of an invasive species it could take years. It takes volunteers hours upon hours to dig up plants, trap, scare away, burn, poison, and animal proof areas to prevent an invasive species from spreading. Introducing a non-native species into a new environment is like introducing fire to

However, pesticides are used to control pests, which include insects, mice and other animals, unwanted plants (weeds), fungi, or microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. Often misunderstood to refer only to the insecticides, the term pesticide also applies to herbicides (that control weeds), fungicides (that control fungi), and substances used to control other pests. In addition, because many pests tend to travel between farms, resistance to pesticides can evolve at an inefficient rate. Farmers can increase the economic efficiency of chemical use by adapting integrated pest and resistance management practices, such as rotating crops and pesticides, reducing reliance on a single pesticide, adjusting planting and harvesting dates, scouting fields, and using more benign, and biological control

Until a stable balance is reached, healthy and balanced ecosystem keep this balance through several limiting factors, which can restrict and regulate the size or range of species such as natural climate, geography, presence or absence of predators. When, however, these invasive species are accidentally or intentionally transplanted into out waters. They can upset the ecological balance. They lack disease and predator controls, so these non-native species can rapidly reproduce and spread at an amazing and faster pace than native species. The consequence is that these invasive species compete with native species for food and habitat. These organisms harmful not because of what they are, but where they happen to be. Most of the world’s ecosystem are the result of coevolution by numerous different organisms in the worlds, adapting to their environment and each other. In other words, natural ecosystems become totally disrupt and out of balance. if the new species and habitat’s limiting factors fail to restrict the rapid

From the smallest fly to the blue whale, from a blade of grass to a towering redwood, everything exploits the natural resources that Earth and its other inhabitants provide. In order to ensure its survival, an organism must assimilate itself into the food web or risk extinction at the hand of natural selection. Sometimes, a species is accidentally or purposefully introduced into a new area. These newcomers, commonly known as invasive species have no choice but to make themselves a part of the food web or die out. Unfortunately, that usually leads to fierce competition for resources between a local species and the invasive one, in which only the victor is allowed to survive. In a relatively short amount of time, the sudden pressure on resources can completely upset and destroy an ecosystem, taking the invasive species with it. With the invasive species destroyed, the ecosystem can slowly rebuild back to the way it was before. According to National Geographic, an invasive species is a “type of plant or animal that is not indigenous to a particular area and causes economic or environmental harm.” (National Geographic).[6] Based on that definition, humans sound suspiciously like an invasive species, except on a global scale. If humanity does not decide to become more sustainable soon, we will suffer the same fate as other invasive species: extinction. Luckily, the pressures of human exploitation of the environment for resources can be mostly eliminated through the use of

If we go all the way back to the time when man first began to explore all corners of the earth, they have had to carry food and other provisions with them to sustain themselves along the way. In addition, explorers seeking new land also carried with them familiar animal and plant species to establish colonies in new places. Unbeknownst to them at the time, they were the ones directly responsible for breaching the delicate barriers that isolated biogeographical biotas from one another. On the other hand, this was not the only these non-native species were and are able to wreak havoc on the various ecosystems and communities. What’s more, these intruders have learned to alter themselves and adapt in response to their interactions with native

and systems has to be created for specific invasive species to effectively control and vanquish them.

In an interview with Nicoli Barca, a field tech with the Nature Conservancy he stated biological controls are very effective when done right. An example of its effectiveness is

Influence on ecosystems range from human causes like the bulldozing of a forest to natural causes like a fire or a flood.  In recent times, the introduction and spread of invasive species has transformed native communities rapidly and, in some cases, created irreversible damages.  In the Earth’s history, changes have often occurred in the ecosystems.  For example, glaciers and the retreat of glaciers cause wide-spread changes.  However, although change is a constant in ecosystems, animals and habitats often cannot adapt to the rapid alterations of non-natural stresses.  Harm to the environment from the introduction of invasive species occurs through changes in the habitat and declines in the native species.  Invasive species

“Invasive species are among the leading threats to native wildlife. Approximately 42 percent of threatened or endangered species are at risk due to invasive species.” Invasive species are harmful to the environment and native systems, and money should be invested toward the damage. In order to be an invasive species, they must be able to adapt towards the environment easily, reproduce quickly, and harm the property, native plants and animals, and the economy. They are organisms that cause ecological or economic harm into a domestic environment where they are not native to. These pests can be unintentionally introduced by ship ballast water, accidental release, and mostly by humans. Invasive species can out-compete native organisms

An invasive species is a plant or animal that is introduced to specific location where the specie is not native to it; and has the ability to spread very quickly , which is believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy and/or human health. The term most used for this species is Introduced species (also called “non-native”), these species affect the habitats and environments they invade environmentally, economically and ecologically.

Every life form all over the world depends on the ecosystem for its survival. However, the ecosystem can be threatened when there is an excess or drop in resources. Many people will argue that human beings are the primary cause of this economic imbalance but are people the root of this problem? No. There is evidence that invasive species all over the country has also threatened our ecosystem. Invasive species are any living organism such a plants, fungus, insects, and fish just to name a few. Invasive species pose a threat to wildlife in many ways. (“National Wildlife Federation,” 2009) states species brought into an atmosphere that doesn’t have any predators are considered dangerous. They often breed and spread rapidly, assuming control over a region. Local untamed life has no advanced safeguards against the trespasser, and they stand no chance against species that has no predators (p.2). Furthermore, these species invade areas that they aren’t indigenous to and reproduce quickly. To further understand the underlying crux of invasive species and how this matter may come to fruition, I will provide an analogy of an article that addresses this problem, by summarizing and identifying the negative impact invasive species have on the ecosystem.

Invasive species are organisms that are not native to an ecosystem and cause harm to it. These organisms are capable of bringing about a great deal of damage to the ecosystems they are foreign to. This can range from disrupting the growth of the environment it has taken over to completely decimating other species. The introduction of invasive species to new environments often involves humans. The way that invasive species are introduced to a new environment varies greatly. Invasive species may be introduced by something as simple as humans accidentally tracking species into a new environment from the bottom of their shoes, or something bigger like destroying an ecosystem to clear the land, forcing the species that lived there to flee to a new ecosystem that can be disrupted by the presence of a new species.

In the short history of human life, at least in the scale of earth’s existence, they have traveled and moved around more than any animal or plant could have dreamed and they were not alone on those journeys. Like anyone going on a trip today, most people end up taking a little more than they expected with them. This extra baggage could be anything as small as a spore to livestock and others animals, but even the sometimes small packages can end up being deadly. Introducing an organism into a population that has no defenses against it, means in the fight for survival the native species doesn’t often survive. That’s why one of the most dangerous forces of extinction is the loss of diversity through the introduction of new species and the death of native species.