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Details
Invasive species are species that come from a different region and are introduced to a new area in order to either eliminate a problem in that area, hunting, or decoration. Lately, invasive species have become a major issue because of their rapid growth and difficulty to eliminate.
The presence of invasive species in foreign ecosystems and environments causes disruptions in those ecosystems’ limiting factors, as invasive species are capable of altering just one part of the ecosystem, resulting in a massive change in environment. For example, the introduction of a new plant species to an unfamiliar environment could possibly lead to as drastic of a change as one plant species going completely extinct due to the lack of sunlight since the new plant would require all the sunlight necessary to grow regularly. In class, we learned about quite a few different invasive species. For instance, one of the most interesting cases was that of cane toads, a frog species that originated in Hawaii and was brought to Queensland, Australia, to eliminate the beetles that were destroying the area’s crops. While the beetle population decreased, the cane toad population drastically increased, and has become a much larger issue ever since. Cane toads are able to adapt quickly to their new environment and are able to reproduce thousands upon thousands of eggs in one go, all of which hatch within two days, making it difficult to eliminate the growing population. In addition, the cane toad species has no natural predator and are highly venomous, which has also added to the problem of attempting to decrease their population. Some techniques to reduce the population of invasive species include: manual removal, the introduction of a new species, mowing/grazing, applying herbicides, and planting native plants (the final three apply to invasive plants only). Manual removal requires people to eliminate the species by hand, while introducing a new species can threaten the invasive species. Mowing and grazing will destroy an invasive plant species, and herbicide application will prevent the plant from further growth. Planting native plants will result in competition between the native and invasive plants to arise, and can lead to overcrowding in that one area in which the plants are planted. Here are some photos of different invasive species!
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