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Problems Associated With Globalization And The Ability Of Travel Around The World

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With globalization and the ability to travel around the world comes the movement of many things, including many plants and animals. However, the connectedness of the world allows non-native species to be introduced to new habitats. The introduction of most species that become invasive is “due to unintentional ‘hitchhiking’ through international trade, with invaders stowing away in ships, planes, trucks, shipping containers, and packing materials, or arriving on nursery stock, unprocessed logs, fruits, seeds, and vegetables” (McNeely, p. 1, 2001). The movement of organisms around the world started with the earliest of colonists as they tried to recreate their homes and create a familiar environment in newly discovered lands. Not all alien species are invasive and some are the basis of modern agriculture, but the species that have become invasive have led to sometimes disastrous repercussions and numerous extinctions.
If non-native species outcompete native organisms and use all the resources available, these introduced organisms are called invasive species. Some plants or animals can be successfully introduced into an ecosystem and adapt to coexist with the native species, but invasive species take over the habitats and niches of native organisms. Invasive species spread rapidly and are not controlled in the same way native species are because the predators or conditions that regulated the growth of these species do not exist where they have been transplanted. These species

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