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Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Sat 14 Apr 2007, 16:08:14
by mommy22
Today I spent pulling out Garlic Mustard in my little area of the world with a group of naturalists (and a photographer).
It was quite insightful, as I guess I'd never made the connection with Invasive species and the food chain. And that made me think of bees and how many are AWOL, and other oddities in the weather, etc...
The naturalist talked about how if the invasive species in any area is allowed to overtake the native species, insects don't have the nectar from flowers that aer meant to grow in that area. If the insects aren't there, the birds have to find another place to eat, as well as amphibians, etc... and on and on up the food chain.
Anyway, now is the time to pull up the Garlic Mustard here, until it blossoms, and seeds go everywhere (thus inadvertantly spreading the seeds and doing a disservice).
I encourage you to find out what's an invasive species in your corner of the world, and the best time to destroy it, and DO IT!!
Sorry if this is already common knowledge...I just didn't realize til today how important this is to work against.
Oh...one more thing...A SUCCESS! The naturalist took us to an area that a group had pulled out Garlic Mustard last year, and he was really surprised to see that it all but disappeared, and that native wildflowers were starting to thrive in that area. So, if you are out there pulling, know you are doing something awesome for the plants next year and years to come!

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Sat 14 Apr 2007, 23:52:52
by Loki
As for the original post, invasives (both plant and animal) are a serious problem throughout North America. Globalization is making that worse. Aquatic invasives are particularly nasty, as they are extremely difficult to control once they've become established. You end up with the ironic situation of enviro orgs like the Nature Conservancy shelling out money to Monsanto for herbicides used to control invasive plants like Japanese knotweed.

On the other hand, knotweed is apparently a decent food plant, as are many other invasives. Might not be a bad thing to have some of them around for famine foods....

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Sun 15 Apr 2007, 00:20:09
by Commanding_Heights
mommy22 wrote:Today I spent pulling out Garlic Mustard in my little area of the world with a group of naturalists (and a photographer).
It was quite insightful, as I guess I'd never made the connection with Invasive species and the food chain. And that made me think of bees and how many are AWOL, and other oddities in the weather, etc...
The naturalist talked about how if the invasive species in any area is allowed to overtake the native species, insects don't have the nectar from flowers that aer meant to grow in that area. If the insects aren't there, the birds have to find another place to eat, as well as amphibians, etc... and on and on up the food chain.
Anyway, now is the time to pull up the Garlic Mustard here, until it blossoms, and seeds go everywhere (thus inadvertantly spreading the seeds and doing a disservice).
I encourage you to find out what's an invasive species in your corner of the world, and the best time to destroy it, and DO IT!!
Sorry if this is already common knowledge...I just didn't realize til today how important this is to work against.
Oh...one more thing...A SUCCESS! The naturalist took us to an area that a group had pulled out Garlic Mustard last year, and he was really surprised to see that it all but disappeared, and that native wildflowers were starting to thrive in that area. So, if you are out there pulling, know you are doing something awesome for the plants next year and years to come!


Anyone here want to tell me how to kill Kudzu? I'll make a fortune!

I swear I've seen a goat eat it, take a crap and the Kudzu starts growing where the goat did his business.

And speaking of... has anyone tried using this stuff as biomass considering it can grow 2 to 3 feet a day?

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Sun 15 Apr 2007, 02:50:02
by Ibon
Invasive species are present on all continents and usually introduced inadvertantly by humans. The invasive species in it's native habitat is held in check by natural predators or by competition for resources and space with other species that share the same habitat and resource base. Species become invasive when they are introduced into an area where they thrive without predation and where they can out compete native species or exploit a niche that was previously not present in the ecosystem. Invasive species often experience rapid exponential growth in their new habitats.

It is instructive to understand invasive species as there is a clear parrallel to humans during the past 100 years where we have temporarily overcome our natural predators, disease, and have grown exponentially by exploiting a previously unexploited energy rich resource (oil).

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Sun 15 Apr 2007, 07:58:58
by Tanada
Can anyone tell me when at any time in the last 100 years an invasive species has been dealt with successfully by mankind? Zebra mussles, the Emrerald Ash Borer, Dutch Elm Disease, Dandelion, Feral Cat (Felis Cattus).....

IMO time to stop wasting efforts on the truely hopeless causes and concentrate on things that can make a difference. The Emerald Ash Borer has been spreading rapidly for a few years now and basically has suceeded in eliminating mature Ash trees throughout Michigan, northern Ohio and northern Indiana. At this point it is a lost cause, but the reality is it was probably a lost cause before our DNR and US Park Service even noticed the pattern of Ash tree deaths. Sadly by the time humans noticed that the problem existed and diagnosed the cause the little bugs were already well established and spreading. Every attempt to date to quarantine or eradicate them has been a failure, and there is no longer enogh money budgeted to even pretend we might succeed in eliminating them. I asked a US Park ranger at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore about them a month ago because the display map of effected counties covered half the state. His response was, the map was out of date, they have spread to 90% of the LP already.
It will probably be another couple years before they kill all of the Ash trees, but the end is in sight and there is effectively nothing we can do to stop it.

Zebra mussles, as another example, have also now spread throughout the great lakes and through many of the small lakes within Michigan. We now have to take steps on a regular basis to clean them out of water intake pipes and off the beaches. They are a mixed curse however, they are voracious filter feeders and have cleaned a great deal of the particulate pollution out of the lakes, this in turn has increased sunlight, phytoplankton, water plant survival and blooming fish population in the shallows.

Things are what they are, we can rail against them or adapt to deal with them but in the end we probably won't be able to eliminate any of the invasive species wheather plant or animal.

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Sun 15 Apr 2007, 12:30:14
by Tanada
Gideon wrote:Tanada - yes. Very good.

I believe that there are some examples of successful control - not elimination. There's some plant in FL that has been restrained. Rabbits in Oz.

But for the most part you are right.

The idea of removing "invasive species" so that we can bring back the past may be more vainglorious than realistic.

I was in my backyard once and I noted to my neighbor that I liked the english ivy that blanketed the ground.

It's an invasive species, she replied.

Maybe, but the oaks didn't seem to mind the ground cover and I didn't either.

Does Zebra muscle taste good?

On the other hand, if it's that good at removing toxins from the water, then it's probabably a mistake to eat it.


Zebra mussles are about the size of the tip of your fingers, they are small enough that if you step on them while swimming you have a good chance that they will crush into sharp peices and cut your skin. No idea how they taste ;)

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Sun 15 Apr 2007, 17:59:30
by Chaparral
I'd expect the issue of invasive species to fall off the radar once the oil shocks really start to bite. In So Cal, I see all these people with the Native Plant Society taking the boat to Catalina Is to hack out non-native fennel and wild mustard in an attempt to return an entire landscape to its "natural" or "pristine" state. The amount of thought and energy some put into this is amazing, and to me, foolish: like pissing into a force 10 gale.

The downside with non-natives in a post PO env't where Permaculture and such gains importance is that many species like Eucalyptus for example seem almost worse than useless: they don't support much of a food web, not a whole lot grows under their canopies, they're a fire hazard extrordinaire and the wood required months of seasoning before it's useful for building materials. Similar situations occur with Arundo donax invading riparian corridors or Eurasian crucifers covering hillsides in Calif. Certain invasives might render the landscape even less productive than topsoil degradation or years of industrial ag.

I'd argue that ultimately, everything is just going to have to coevolve and niches will develop slowly as predators and parasites integrate the newcomers into the extant ecosystems. Geez! Imagine peak oil and global warming combined with red-imported fire ants :(

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Mon 16 Apr 2007, 00:12:58
by Tanada
Chaparral wrote:I'd expect the issue of invasive species to fall off the radar once the oil shocks really start to bite. In So Cal, I see all these people with the Native Plant Society taking the boat to Catalina Is to hack out non-native fennel and wild mustard in an attempt to return an entire landscape to its "natural" or "pristine" state. The amount of thought and energy some put into this is amazing, and to me, foolish: like pissing into a force 10 gale.

The downside with non-natives in a post PO env't where Permaculture and such gains importance is that many species like Eucalyptus for example seem almost worse than useless: they don't support much of a food web, not a whole lot grows under their canopies, they're a fire hazard extrordinaire and the wood required months of seasoning before it's useful for building materials. Similar situations occur with Arundo donax invading riparian corridors or Eurasian crucifers covering hillsides in Calif. Certain invasives might render the landscape even less productive than topsoil degradation or years of industrial ag.

I'd argue that ultimately, everything is just going to have to coevolve and niches will develop slowly as predators and parasites integrate the newcomers into the extant ecosystems. Geez! Imagine peak oil and global warming combined with red-imported fire ants :(


Red imported fire ants are an interesting case to study, seems how you bring them up. From what I have read it now appears from DNA testing that all the RFA in the USA decend from a single queen that made it to Louisiana after being fertilized. That is the proxiamate cause of their changed behavior in the USA, they are all very closely related and consequently recognize one another as nest members to the point where they will form colony clusters with scores or hundreds of queens in a community hive. In their natural ecosystem the queens are not closely genetically related and the different RFA colonies compete and drive down their own population somewhat as a result, here in the USA they cooperate and drive out all the other ant species instead.

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Mon 16 Apr 2007, 00:44:55
by Ibon
Invasive species population blooms paralleling human population growth since the advent of oil is worth exploring a little further.

Take the case of the prickly pear cactus that once introduced in Australia in the early 20th century bloomed to cover by 1925 over 25 million acres in what was a disaster for farmers and considered a botanical marvel that a species could spread so far so fast. Just six years later the thick stands of cactus where virtually wiped out and under control by the introduction of a natural predator of the cactus, the cactoblastis caterpillar (Cactoblastis cactorum).


The Brazilian red fire ant mentioned above by Chapparal is another example. Brought aboard a freight ship from Brazil to New Orleans about 40 years ago it took only that long for the species to spread east to Florida and west through Texas. In the 1990's after extensive testing a predatory mite was introduced and effectively wiped out the fire ant colonies in large sections of Florida.

So you cant control invasive species by pulling weeds or spraying herbicides once large populations become established. You need to introduce natural predators and biological controls to have a chance.

What is interesting is how vulnerable a species becomes that has reached levels of exponential growth in an environment recently colonized. Are humans today at such a point?

A feature of invasive species also mentioned by Chapparal is that they end up creating ecological dead zones that do not interact with local habitats. If you walk in a Melaleuca forest in the Everglades NP in FLorida you wont here a bird or see an insect. This tree was introduced from Australia and is one of the top invasives there.

What about vast areas of urban sprawl? Exponential growth during the past century forming similar ecological dead zones where humans move about in infrastructures and economies that have no interrelationship with local habitats?

Humans today are an invasive species on the planet. We have held our predators, disease, in check but this is very temporary. Approaching the limits of growth a correction is overdue. We have bloomed as a species to a tipping point that all it takes is perhaps one biological control similar to what the cactoblastic caterpillar did to the prickly pear in Australia.

Going back to Tanada's original post, can we even do anything about what is happening? Is buying a Prius or turning down the thermostat at night just about as futile as those native plant society folks that go out with spades digging up invasives?

A huge correction of our population is the only real meaningful solution.

On the energy descent we can implement conservation and increase effeciencies and as a result increase our global population to 12 billion while doing so. THis is possibly where we are heading if we don't find a way to re introduce biological controls to our over population.

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Mon 16 Apr 2007, 04:29:58
by Chaparral
^ the phenomenon of supercolonies spanning entire states is not unique to RIFA. In So Cal we have those pesky little Argentine ants Iridomyrmex humilis which have apparently done the same thing: a single colony arrived in the 1930s and now covers most of the coastal regions from San Diego to the edge of Cascadia. Back around the mid '90s I'd thought of bringing in additional colonies from Paraguay as a biocontrol with the idea that genetically unique queens would wage war against one another thereby reducing the numbers and health of the species as a whole. It seems that such an idea is doomed to failure given the long period of establishment that the existing "genotype" has enjoyed.

WRT this topic and food security, a number of introduced pests such as cabbage worms or ash whiteflies do seem to have various types of parasitoid wasps that control them. I'd argue that finding and testing biocontrol of all these noxious exotics that threaten food production should remain a high priority above and beyond any number of other government services. In an ideal world, a powerdown gov't would take the issue of noxious invasives as seriously as any military threat.

WRT the larger issue, I am certain that Ibon (and Monte, by extension) is correct: we could successfully powerdown, solve the problem of nat gas and industrial ag and climate change and yet reach the same problem a generation later with a different limiting factor.

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Mon 16 Apr 2007, 11:54:02
by Snowstorm
Most invasive species are simply taking advantage of disturbed ecosystems, look at the worst invaded areas and they just happen to correspond to the mosat disturbed. Efforts to control them often just encourage their spread because they involve more disturbance, but the herbicide companies love it because they profit. It's cause and effect, we change the ecosystem (and even old growth forests are changed because of air pollution, acid rain, loss of animal species, and the fact they are of a much smaller size) and yet we still expect the remaining slivers of natural areas to ne the same as in 1491. Nature has different plans, a changed ecosystem will become out of balance and new species will taker over, eventually if there's a new stability an new balance will result, but right now it's more and more in the rapidly changing state. Unfortuanately people are blaming the symptoms. Many of these species even reduce human impact, just think of all the invasive weeds that comeup on newly disturbed soil, without them erosion would be worse. Zebra mussels are filter feeders, human pollution of lakes is the root cause of their explosive numbers. Purple loosestrife can actually break down PCBs, and also is way more likely to be found in disturbed areas. Permaculture co-founder David Holmgren also has similar views, although he writes from an Australian perspective, here's one of his articles on the subject,

http://www.holmgren.com.au/html/Writings/weeds.html

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Mon 16 Apr 2007, 13:04:14
by Ibon
It is never safe to make sweeping statements about complex communities of organisms. Most invasives do establish themselves in disturbed areas as Snowstorm pointed out but not always as in the case of Melaleuca trees for example in Florida which is invasive in undisturbed saw grass communities. And it is true that many invasives will eventually find their balance in their new environments to the benefit and/or detriment of the already existing organisms. This applies to humans as well.

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Mon 16 Apr 2007, 17:22:08
by davep
I was about to post something similar to Snowstorm's post, so I'll just second it instead.

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Tue 17 Apr 2007, 16:27:15
by dohboi
I think tanada is right in that we probably cannot wipe out successful invasives from their new homes. The main point is that now that we know the devastating effects of many invasives, we SHOULD be working VERY hard on avoiding introducing more...but we AREN'T (with anything like the level needed.)



gideon wrote:

"We are just, in fact, cane toads on crack."

I don't care for much of what you write, and even less for the tone, but this is priceless--almost makes me want to forgive you the rest of your largely uninformative bluster. :roll:

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Thu 19 Jun 2008, 02:01:27
by dinopello
The "Tree of Heaven" is a scourge upon this earth.

They are everywhere and spreading. They grow fast and are useless as far as I can tell. My yard-neglecting neighbor has them all over her back yard and they pop up everywhere. Arg :x

Re: Invasive Species

Unread postPosted: Wed 03 Jan 2018, 10:23:32
by Tanada
I just posted this in another topic in response to dohboi's question but it really belongs here so I am duplicating it. Technically I am violating the rules so please don't tell those mean Moderators or Admins about it, okay?

dohboi wrote:Also, how much do we know about the sea bed in ESAS. Is it utterly lifeless? If not, might there be some burrowing creatures there which may become more active as things warm? And even if it is now (which I doubt), might not new creatures be migrating into these newly warmed waters (I'm quite sure they are), some of which may be active burrowers? Couldn't these provide pathways for warm water to get directly down to deeper layers of sediment without having to depend on slow radiative transfer?...Just some thoughts that waft about in my feverish brain...


Back in the 1960's the USSR imported Alaskan King Crab from off their Pacific coast on the Kamchatka Peninsula to the Barents Sea which has a similar climate. These giant crabs now number in the tens of millions and have spread at least through the adjoining Norwegian Sea and the Kara Sea because the bottom water on the shelf is warm enough to support their entire life cycle including reproduction. The crucial question is have they made it as far back east as the Laptev Sea? Once they are able to spread that far the ESAS will be an open smorgasbord to them. On the other hand by the time the sea warms that much in the Arctic shelf they made have already spread under their own impetus up the Pacific coast and through the Bering Strait into the ESAS from the other side. No matter if they come from east or west at some point these giant King Crab will be roaming the ESAS seeking all they may devour.

In addition to the deliberately introduced King Crabs other species are being accidentally transplanted to the Arctic seas as well and once established trying to get rid of them is almost pointless. This story got my attention because Zebra and Quagga mussels came into the Great Lakes accidentally in ballast water and massively changed the ecosystem where I live. The continental shelf is basically continuous from northern Greenland and going west all the way around the Arctic to Great Britain. The only substantial break is two openings between Iceland and Great Britain and between Iceland and Greenland. Even at that though the basin lip is lower than the continental shelf its actually only a few hundred feet deeper and some continental shelf dwelling species may be able to cross these two gaps as well.

Among the participants on board for this leg of the trip was Kim Howland, a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, who joined C3 to continue a DNA sampling study that has been part of the expedition's science mission since its voyage began in June.

Unlike the easy-to-spot passengers from the Crystal Serenity, the visitors that Dr. Howland is most concerned about are hidden invaders that could soon be arriving in these waters as climate change opens the doors to increased maritime traffic.

Dr. Howland's focus is on the invasive species that can travel across oceans in the ballast water of commercial ships and that have a devastating impact when they arrive in places where they don't belong.

"The Arctic hasn't had to face this problem until now," said Dr. Howland, who is part of DFO's Arctic Research Division, based in Winnipeg. "But with ongoing warming and declines in sea ice making these waters more navigable – and more hospitable – it's a real concern."

The DNA study Dr. Howland and her colleagues is conducting is aimed at giving scientists and officials a fair warning about precisely what is coming to Canada's northern seas. Rather than look for individual specimens of an invading species which may or may not be present, the study scoops up free-floating DNA from the water, searching for genetic traces of animals that are not native to the region. Because the C3 ship is making one continuous trip through the Arctic from east to west, it can provide a snapshot of where things stand in each region and how those regions compare.

For those who live along the Great Lakes, where zebra mussels have been a scourge since they arrived in the 1980s, the problem of invasive species is not new. Similarly, Atlantic Canada has been coping with its share of interlopers. They include the European green crab, a tenacious predator that out-competes native species and can have a destabilizing effect on intertidal ecosystems – all to the detriment to local fisheries. Another threat is the common periwinkle, a type of sea snail that also originated in Europe, and which the strains the marine food chain by eating all the algae in sight, as well as transmitting a parasite that affects fish.

Historically, these and other creatures were not deemed a threat to Arctic waters, as it was presumed the harsh conditions there would prohibit their growth. But Dr. Howland has just co-authored a modelling study which suggests that this is no longer the case for some potential invaders, and it will become less so as time goes on.

"The motivation was to try to understand the threat of the arrival of new species in a region where we don't have too much information," said Jesica Goldsmit, a postdoctoral researcher with DFO and lead author of the study, which was accepted for publication last week in the journal Biological Invasions.

In the study, the researchers looked at how eight invasive species might fare in the Arctic 50 years from now based on climate forecasts. The result: "We're predicting that all the species we modelled would survive," Dr. Howland said. While the degrees to which the species are likely to migrate northward vary, all of them would find a suitable habitat somewhere in the Arctic by the end of the 50-year run, the model shows. And all of them pose a threat to the ecosystem and traditional ways of life.

One of the locations at highest risk is the relatively warmer Hudson Bay, which is considered an Arctic ecosystem even though it dips well below the Arctic Circle. Another is the Beaufort Sea, above the coast of Alaska and Western Canada, which is open to shipping coming up through the Bering Strait.

Less clear is what will happen among the maze of channels and islands that makes up the central portion of Canada's High Arctic – also known as the Kitikmeot region – where the marine biology is far less explored. This is part of what has motivated Dr. Howland and other researchers who are participating in the C3, as well as others who are conducting studies in the area. And it's clear there is little time left to gather the baseline data before region is further transformed by warming temperatures and increased shipping traffic.

Sea and land alike are affected by climate change. Jeff Saarela, a botanist and director of the Canadian Museum of Nature's Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration, was also on the C3 last week, armed with a permit to collect plants as part of the expedition. Taking advantage of the ship's frequent stops in places that few scientists have ever been able to access, he spent much of the voyage with his knees in the dirt, trowel in hand, extracting specimens.

"We know the Arctic is the fastest-warming part of the planet, and we know that species are responding," Dr. Saarela said. "To document when something has moved, you have to know what was there before."

Along the voyage there were hints of the transformation to come. After leaving Cambridge Bay, expedition leaders nosed their ship west and south to the now uninhabited hamlet of Bathurst Inlet.


More on the Canadian study taking place HERE

Invasive Species on the Rise

Unread postPosted: Fri 10 May 2019, 00:52:43
by jedrider
Knotweed
https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/japanese-knotweed-invasive-plants.html

Climate Change may not end all life on Earth because, maybe, the tough will survive, the tough plants, that is:

Japanese Knotweed appears to be causing severe disruption to ecosystems and urban, surburban and rural environments as well.

I haven't seen any, I don't think, but I remember battling scotch broom where I last lived. Don't currently have any problems with invasive species AFAIK, but I still see scotch broom on not so near neighbor's front yards. I think I ought to tell them.

Where I last lived, at 2000 feet attitude here in California, the scotch broom were along every freeway, every road. I found an effective antidote, however, which was another invasive species, the Blue Violet, I believe. It is way better looking than scotch broom. Still, it crowds out all native species.

These fast growing plants are also fire hazards in a seasonally dry place like California. The Blue Violet, however, is just a ground cover, which is actually beneficial for retaining moisture.

That's all I know about plants. I don't have a green thumb and get all my produce at the market.

Re: Invasive Species on the Rise

Unread postPosted: Sat 11 May 2019, 09:54:40
by derhundistlos
Thank you, jedrider, for the link to the article on Japanese knotweed. Wow, I had no idea just how destructive is this monster. Where I live, the worst invasive plants are Common buckthorn and Japanese honeysuckle. The Brown marmorated stink bug showed-up for the first time last year and they are horrible. They destroy fruits and vegetables and even corn and soybeans. Plus, they make inside homes to overwinter. Making matters worse, White-nose syndrome arrived into this area in 2010 and the bats have NEVER recovered. I have bat houses atop poles throughout my property. I used to enjoy watching the acrobatic bats during sundown. Then in the span of a single season, the ENTIRE bat population crashed save one solitary bat. Bats are Mother Nature's most important insectivore and with their loss farmers are having to dramatically increase usage of poisonous pesticides.

Re: Invasive Species on the Rise

Unread postPosted: Sat 11 May 2019, 21:26:30
by Ibon
Knotweed vs Kudzu Ape? No contest.

Re: Invasive Species on the Rise

Unread postPosted: Sun 12 May 2019, 01:18:41
by derhundistlos
Ibon, you nailed it!!!!