NON-NATIVE SPECIES

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NON-NATIVE SPECIES

• A MODERN-DAY CAUSE OF COMPETITION AND EXTINCTION

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What Are Native Species?

• Native species are those that normally live and
  thrive in a particular community. They occupy
  specific habitats and have specific niches in
  their native environment. They have natural
  predators that help to keep their populations in
  check.

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What Are Non-Native Species?

• Species that migrate into an ecosystem or are
  deliberately or accidentally introduced into an
  ecosystem by humans.

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Africanized Honeybee (Killer Bees)

• 1957 African honey be crossed with native honey
  bee to produce an overly aggressive bee in Brazil
  which escaped.
• Displaced the native honeybee through competitive
  exclusion and migrated northward at a rate of 200
  miles per year.
• Northward migratory rate slowing down due to
  climate (frost).
• Will global warming allow their migration to move
  northward over time?
• Problems They are so aggressive, they not only
  out-compete native bee populations, but pose
  great health threats to humans.

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Geographic Distribution of Africanized Honey Bees
in USA
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Fire Ants

• Late 1930s introduced by accident in Alabama in
  shiploads of lumber and cargo.
• Interspecific competition reduced native ant
  species by 90!
• Fire ants are very aggressive and through direct
  combat reduced native species.
• Since there are no natural predators, they
  produced more colonies than native ants and
  increased their population density significantly
  in south.

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Fire Ants

• Interference Competition fire ants consumed
  food and invaded habitat of native ant species
  (competitive exclusion principle).
• They release sulfuric acid when they bite and can
  kill deer fawn, lizards, birds, livestock, pets,
  and human babies.
• Fire ants have invaded trucks and caused roadside
  accidents when drivers have been attacked.
• Chew through underground cables and disrupt
  electric and phone service and have started
  electrical fires in the south.

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Fire Ants

• They are pesticide resistant (Directional Natural
  Selection of r-strategists)
• USDA (US Department of Agriculture) has
  introduced a non-native parasitic fly that
  deposits eggs on the fire ants. When the larvae
  develop, they eat the heads of the fire ant.
  CHAOS!

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Fire Ant Distribution in the USA
(Degrees Celsius)
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Kudzu Vine

• 1930s - imported from Japan and planted in the
  southeastern USA to help combat soil erosion
  following the Dust Bowl.
• 1940s US Soil Conservation Service (federal
  agency) paid farmers a subsidy to grow kudzu
  vine.
• Problems No natural predators, very prolific
  reproduction. Costs USA government 500
  million/year to eradicate!
• Possible Commercial Uses Chemicals produced in
  the vine are used in Japan to combat diseases.
• USA found chemicals in vine may reduce alcoholic
  cravings.
• May be a source for paper products!

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Kudzu Vine Distribution in USA
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Bamboo
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Wooly Adelgid
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Wooly Adelgid

• Native to East Asia
• First found in VA in 1950s
• Decimating Hemlock population
• No natural predators
• Hemlock has no defense against

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What Are Indicator Species?

• Indicator species serve as early warnings of
  damage to a community.
• Birds and butterflies are migratory and are
  excellent indicators of the environment. They do
  not return to areas along their migratory routes
  where deforestation has occurred or where broad
  spectrum pesticides have been applied.
• Amphibians are also a universal indicator of
  environmental degradation as they respire through
  their skin.

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Why Are Amphibians Vanishing?

• Appeared in the fossil record about 350 million
  years ago.
• Frogs and toads have been around for 150 million
  years (indicates adaptability)
• Last 20 years nearly 3,000 species of frogs and
  toads have disappeared.

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Reasons for Global Amphibian Declines

• Global climate change (Costa Rican golden toads)
• Dehydration weakens amphibians, susceptible to
  fatal diseases.
• Introduction of non-native predatory fish into
  aquatic habitats.
• Pollution (air, water, soil) respire through
  skin.
• Consume insects that take up pesticides
  (bioacumulation/biomagnification).
• Eggs sensitive to increases in UV radiation
  endocrine blockers)
• Consumption of frog legs (delicacy).
• Loss of habitat.

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Indicator Species

• As indicator species, amphibians may be sending
  us an important message about the health of the
  global environment.
• They dont need us, but we and other species need
  them.

Golden toads once prevalent in Costa Ricas
cloud forest have disappeared.
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Indicator Species on Long Island
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Why Should We Care About Indicator Species?

• They give clues that the environmental health is
  deteriorating in parts of the world such as
  habitat loss and degradation, pollution, UV
  exposure, and climate change.
• They provide ecological services (niche) in
  biological communities. ie. Amphibians eat more
  insects including mosquitoes than birds. They
  provide a food source for higher trophic levels.
• Amphibians especially provide a storehouse of
  pharmaceutical products waiting to be discivered
  (economic goods and services).

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What Are Keystone Species?

• A keystone species holds a community together,
  when it disappears, so does the biological
  community. Elimination of a keystone species
  dramatically alters the structure and function of
  a community.

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American Alligator a Keystone Species

• Largest North American reptile only humans are
  their predator.
• Hunted nearly to extinction for exotic meat, and
  leather to make shoes and pocketbooks, and for
  sport.

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Ecological Niche of American Alligator

• Dig gator holes that collect freshwater during
  the dry season which serve as refuges for aquatic
  life, and supply freshwater and food for many
  animals.

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Ecological Niche of American Alligator

• Alligator nesting mounds serve as nesting and
  feeding sites for herons and egrets

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Ecological Niche of American Alligator

• Alligator eat large numbers of predatory gar fish
  and help maintain healthy numbers of game fish
  such as bass and bream.

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Ecological Niche of American Alligator

• As alligators move from gator holes to nesting
  sites, they keep areas of open water free of
  invading vegetation. This helps to maintain
  healthy ecosystems with flowing water.

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American Alligator Protection

• In 1967, the US Government placed the American
  alligator on the Endangered Species List, which
  protected it from hunting.
• By 1975, the American alligator populations
  rebounded successfully.

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Status of the American Alligator.

• In 1977, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (DOI),
  down-listed the American alligator to a
  threatened species in Florida, Louisiana, and
  Texas.
• Limited kills with a license are permitted.
  Recreational lotteries are held in the Florida
  Everglades each year by FWS.
• Alligator farms established to fulfill the market
  for alligator goods.

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Why Should We Protect keystone Species?

• They play critical roles in the cross pollination
  of angiosperms (bees, hummingbirds, bats).
• Top predator keystone species help regulate the
  population numbers of other species.
• The loss of keystone species can lead to
  population crashes and extinctions of other
  species that depend on it for ecological
  services.

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E.O. Wilson

• The loss of a keystone species is like a drill
  accidentally striking a power line. It causes
  lights to go out all over

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The Good News Is

• Conservation Efforts on the rise
• President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) the
  Golden Age of Conservation
• 1903 he established the first federal refuge at
  Pelican Island off the east coast of Florida to
  protect the endangered brown pelican.

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What Is Our Future?

• By reducing and degrading lifes support
  systems (Earth Capital), we could make our own
  species more vulnerable to extinction, or at
  least to a massive population crash.
• If we are the most intelligent species on
  Earth, why cant we follow the simple laws of
  nature?

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What Can You Do?

• Education
• Participate in local groups to conserve the
  biological integrity of ecosystems
• Promote local economic growth while thinking
  globally
• Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
• Shop locally, think globally (be an educated
  consumer)
• GET INVOLVED AND TELL A FRIEND