Invasive Plants Essay

This program design creates the national plan for invasive species management by prioritizing resource allocation toward targeting those invasive species that cause the greatest cost in the form of monetary damage. This method will use the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s estimates for economic losses caused by invasive species (Pimentel, Zuniga, and Morrison, 2005). Such costs include the cost to repair damaged infrastructure such as water systems and power grids, the loss of food crops outcompeted by invasive species, and lost local income when invasive species decimate

There were four main invasive plants Himalayan Blackberry, Morning Glory, Reed Canary grass, and English Ivy. Carolyn then started to tell us the difference in the shapes

The Maryland ecosystem is being ravaged by several invasive species. These species are introduced into the ecosystem in several ways, with several discoveries of invasive species every year. Whether it be Wavyleaf basketgrass or Purple loosestrife, these plants are capable of outcompeting with native plants and causing devastation to the native ecosystem. These invasive species are damaging to the environment and we should work as a community to halt the spread and limit its impact on the ecosystem of Maryland.

Certain invasive, human-introduced plants are definitely a problem, but some can provide a balance in the ecosystem by providing

Repelling Invader, addresses invasive, alien plant species that threaten native species and ecosystems in Hawaii. Psidium cattleianum (strawberry guava) and Miconia calveescens (velvet tree) are two notorious invasive species to tropical islands. Strawberry guava is known to form monotypic stands in native forests that displace native Hawaiian species and spread by the means of seed dispersal and asexual reproduction. The velvet tree possess the ability to germinate in minimal light, grow through holes in the forest canopy, and outcompete neighboring native plants for sunlight. Site managers are currently combatting these invasive plant species by the means of mechanical and chemical control methods, however many of times the plants regenerate. Biocontrols that host on these foreign plants in their native land are currently being tested for host specificity so that the biocontrol exclusively attacks the target plant and not the native flora. Before the establishment of biocontrols regulations, there were numerous mistakes including the introduction of the mongoose that attacked native Hawaiian bird populations instead of the alien rat population. Now there is a structured process to screen biocontrol agents for host specificity

Invasive species come in many forms; they can be plants, animals, insects, fish, fungus, organisms, and bacteria. Invasive plants are those which cause environmental, economic and human harm and originate from another area or region. They are a complex and difficult problem to tackle. There are more than 4,000 plants species found in Florida, of those 1300 or more are non-native or invasive. Many invasive species are taking over Florida’s waterways disrupting their natural ecosystem by outgrowing and replacing Florida’s native plants. Relieving the damage they cause is not easy, but scientists and members of the communities being affected are finding that it is achievable, as long as everyone works as a team to address the issue.

While Ralph Waldo Emerson believes a weed "is a plant whose virtues haven't been discovered" weeds are "a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants." When a plant or animal is physically moved by humans to an environment whey they didn’t naturally occur they are known as introduced species, also called alien species. Introduced species have been a vital aspect in the fight against biodiversity loss, controlling of invasive species and adaptation to climate change. An introduced species can be an essential part of conservation when a native species that plays a significant role in an ecosystem becomes extinct. However, on the other hand, introduced species can be immense, insidious, and usually irreversible.

Exotic species create difficulty in assessing community composition since they are not native to the environment. However, if exotic species are found within the sample, they should be counted and included in the dataset. Although exotic species theoretically increase the diversity of an area, they signal that the balance of the particular ecosystem is out of sync. Wherein, an exotic species has the potential to out compete native species for resources and eventually have the potential to irreversibly change the ecosystem. It has been shown that not all exotic species introductions have been disastrous, for example, Asians oysters in the Chesapeake Bay have helped to remove pollution and have restored oyster stocks. However, economic costs from exotic species can be separated into direct costs through production loss in agriculture, forestry and management costs. Estimated damage and control cost of invasive species in the US amount to more than $138 billion

Competition is a fundamental ecological process that is observed and studied in numerous species. Individuals can compete within their own species (intraspecific competition) or they can compete against other species (interspecific competition) (Molles and Cahill 2011). Resource limitation and space are commonly competed for among individuals, which in turn, changes the structure and biodiversity of communities (Craine and Dybzinski 2013). One of the most notable cases of interspecific competition occurs between invasive weeds and non-invasive species, such as, agricultural crops (Ashraf et al. 2012). Weeds are usually undesirable native or non-native plants that are able to adapt to poor environments, and thrive in various conditions (Ashraf

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

From all the plants at Kit Carson, I have found one native invasive species I found, is known as the Brazilian Pepper plant. This plant is a native evergreen shrub. The plants has red edible berries, while the leaves have a soft fuzzy texture. This plant widely infiltrated throughout Florida, Hawaii, Bermuda, Bahamas, and recently California. This plant spreads because of the small animals that eat there berries and disperse the seeds throughout the area. This plants spreads rapidly which cause threats to natural vegetation and the organisms that feast of of that vegetation. What makes it even worse is that it is a salt tolerant plant, able to withstands floods, fires, droughts, and can sprout immediately after being cut down. It ability it

The field trip to Quail Hollow Ranch had been a nice implement of invasive plant removal since invasive we have talked about invasive species in class, so the task of removing French broom at Quail Hollow Ranch gave the concept of invasive species more of a “real world” aspect. By “real world” aspect, I am implying that personally seeing a restoration site and uprooting the plants yourself gives more understanding since you’re able to see the density of the nonnative plant population compared to native species and can truly see the labor that goes into restoring a habitat. Furthermore, I personally was unaware of French broom, also known as Genista monspessulana, being an invasive species so the prereading was quite interesting and informative.

The introductions of non-native species can cause significant changes to the biodiversity of ecosystems (Hobbs 2000, Van Auken 2000). These changes, often mediated by competition, can affect the physiognomy of a landscape. These changes then affect other species in

There are problems in obtaining measure of hazard posed by weeds and quantifying uncertainty and variability (Hulme 2012). Labelling on a scale of one to three may also neglects complexities of the species and limit accuracy of the evaluation. Pheloung et al. 1999 proposed that the environmental questions were originally targeted at environmental weeds, which therefore limits the ability to identify forest invaders (Dawson et al. 2009). Also, Daehler et al. (2004) found that it could identify invaders of natural ecosystems in Hawaii and Pacific islands more or less as well as invaders of ecosystems altered by humans. However, communities of islands are rarely undisturbed, diverse or as complex as continental equivalents and therefore expected to be invaded by exotic species (Denslow 2003). It has been suggested that the Weed Risk Assessment does not operate as it should, and only applies to new plants, not to species already in Australia (Lowe 2003). Finally, people may fail to understand the criteria set out in the assessment. A better explanation for each question may be necessary to achieve accurate outcomes into the impacts of the

In their interesting 2000 article, “Invasive Plants Versus Their New and Old Neighbors: A Mechanism for Exotic Invasion,” Ragan M. Callaway and Erik T. Aschehoug discuss invasive plants, specifically Centaurea diffusa, and the things that make them so successful. Most invasive species are not dominant competitors in their natural habitat, but can completely destroy their new plant associates. One hypothesis on why invasives are so successful is because they have avoided their native counterparts that hold them back, which lets them express their full potential. Callaway and Aschehoug hypothesize that invasives are successful because new mechanisms of interaction to natural plant communities.