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Nature And Invasive Species Essay

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Objective- The objective of the lab was to understand how random events in nature and invasive species affect the growth of certain species in an ecosystem. As a result, a species’ population could decrease or increase due the events that happen. In addition, the lab shows how the decreasing growth of certain species is affecting the area’s biodiversity.

Background Information- In this lab we explored how biodiversity can be loss in an ecosystem due to random events and invasive species. To begin with, “Biodiversity is the varieties of organisms and complex ecological relationships that give the biosphere its unique, productive characteristics.”(Cunningham 227) It is usually recognized by species. Biodiversity is important because certain …show more content…

When I did this lab with my group an invasive species was not introduced until the 15th year, as you can see in Figure 1. As a result, we could not observe how badly an invasive species could affect different native species. Even though the starling species, our invasive species, was introduced the last year it still shrunk the grasshopper and red-headed woodpecker population by one. Many factors contributed to the loss of biodiversity in the forest community. These factors were disease, human activities (deforestation and their pets/strays), weather, pesticides, and invasive species. Many diseases spread through the forest killing nine American toads in year 7 and two oak trees each year (refer back to Figure 1 to see). In addition, field mice tried to take shelter in a nearby residence where they were eaten by cat, poisoned and encountered mouse traps. Then, roadways needed to be made, trees and grassland were removed twice, and neighborhood cats ate one red-headed woodpecker, cottontail rabbit, black rat snake, and field mouse. Also, the ecosystem experienced a dry day, a brush fire, and acid rain. The acid rain killed three oak trees and killed one more oak every successive year. Additionally, pesticides were sprayed onto a field that harmed insects and their predators, which include five grasshoppers, two American toads, two red-headed woodpeckers. Finally, our one invasive species did not greatly impact the ecosystem, except for killing one red-headed woodpecker and a

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