If somebody asked me to imagine an idyllic landscape, there
is no doubt that what would immediately spring to my mind is the typical British
countryside. Perhaps this is because I have so far been unadventurous in my
travels and aside from growing up in London, the only other place I have lived
for a prolonged period of time is Yorkshire. However, wherever your dream
destination, I am almost positive that the environmental conditions present
would allow for a range of insects, animals, plants and trees to survive.
Furthermore, depending on the location you choose, the organisms present will differ
dramatically. In so many words I have just described the term global
biodiversity (Convention on Biological Diversity).
You may be interested to hear that species usually thought to be typical of a given location are not always
native. Personally I find it remarkable that organisms are able to survive
and reproduce outside their natural range, establishing new populations in new locations. These are referred to as alien species (IUCN, 2000).
It is inevitable that you will have encountered multiple alien species throughout your lifetime, here are just some of the UK culprits…
So what’s the big deal?
As an undergraduate I studied Biology, so it is not news to me that biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate. Importantly, invasive alien species can have a hugely negative impact on biodiversity (IUCN, 2000). These organisms have the potential to dramatically change the environment that you know and love.
I aim to uncover how these species arrive in new locations across the globe. In doing so I hope to gain a greater understanding of the role that humans have in facilitating this movement. I want to understand how detrimental invasive alien species can truly be to biodiversity. The plants and animals pictured above contribute to the ecology of Britain, could there be any advantages of invasive alien species in a time when global biodiversity is declining so dramatically?
I aim to uncover how these species arrive in new locations across the globe. In doing so I hope to gain a greater understanding of the role that humans have in facilitating this movement. I want to understand how detrimental invasive alien species can truly be to biodiversity. The plants and animals pictured above contribute to the ecology of Britain, could there be any advantages of invasive alien species in a time when global biodiversity is declining so dramatically?
"Invasive alien species" is quite a mouth full however, so throughout my blog I will refer to such species as 'Invasives'!
Hey,
ReplyDeleteProbably a bit soon in the blog but I'd be interested to find out if you think further introduction of alien species (especially to places such as urban green areas) could in fact help global biodiversity. If so what kind of precautions could be taken so that we do not see a repeat of the grey squirrel. red squirrel senario.
Hi Nathen,
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is a very interesting area, and I will definitely be blogging about it in a couple of weeks after having introduced the basics a little more. I currently believe that although global biodiversity may suffer as a consequence of invasive species, in certain situations local biodiversity may in fact be benefitted – although I need to research this further.
With regards to the grey squirrel red squirrel scenario, I am currently reading about the impact of grey squirrels and interestingly it appears that on several occasions the red squirrel was extinct from the local area before grey squirrels were recorded there (Reynolds, 1985) - although competition is likely to have had role in the decline. Anyway I will be blogging about more recent research on this topic in the near future too.