The Plants and Animals DESTROYING Ecosystems | Invasive Species

as the colonies were being settled on the east coast of what is now the united states the ecosystem was changing new crops like sugar and coffee were being brought over and for the first time in thousands of years horses were being reintroduced to north american soil crops were being taken back to europe as well like corn and potatoes this exchange of both plant and animal life ended up being very beneficial to both sides of the exchange but sometimes when flora and fauna are moved to different ecosystems the results can be quite disastrous in 1876 the kudzu plant native to japan and southeast china was brought to the united states as part of the philadelphia centennial exposition where it was touted as a great ornamental plant for its sweet smelling blooms and sturdy vines then from the 1930s through the 1950s the soil conservation service promoted it as a great tool for soil erosion control and began planting it abundantly throughout the south little did they know that kudzu left unchecked by any form of natural predator can get out of control very quickly it grows over a foot per day with 30 vines coming from one root system and getting up to a hundred feet long at maturity it grows quickly overtaking and encasing anything in its path an invasive plant as fast growing as kudzu outcompetes everything from native grasses to fully mature trees by shading them from the sunlight they need to photosynthesize choking them out the loss of native plants can harm other plants insects and animals that have adapted alongside them leading to a cascading effect through the ecosystem over time these effects of habitat loss can lead to the extinction of species but what makes a species invasive an invasive species is an organism that is not indigenous or native to a particular area they can cause great economic and environmental harm to the new area not all non-native species are invasive however as i mentioned earlier most of the food crops grown in the united states including popular varieties of wheat tomatoes and rice are not native to the region to be invasive several boxes must be checked while all species must compete to survive invasive species tend to have similar characteristics that allow them to succeed in environments they didn't evolve in in fact one study found that 86 of invasive species could be identified from their traits alone these include fast growth rapid reproduction high dispersal ability phenotype plasticity tolerance of a wide range of environmental conditions ability to live off a wide range of food types and association with humans as humans tend to be the number one factor for transmitting invasive species to new environments in the past oceans rivers mountain ranges deserts and other geographic features provided barriers that limited the spread of species from one place to another humans with our cars boats and airplanes have made these natural barriers meaningless as a result plant and animal species can move rather quickly from one area to another scientists now estimate that there are 50 000 non-native species in the united states some of these spread by attaching to the bottoms of boats that's how we got the zebra mussel into the great lakes from europe the mussels are so resilient and so invasive that they eat the food usually reserved for the native species of fish when they enter a body of water they can clog water intake pipes disrupt cooling systems in boat engines and have even damaged water pipes at power plants in the great lakes area not to mention their ability to muscle out native species in the region invasive insects can move from area to area by boring into firewood shipping pallets and other products and sometimes humans release killer species into the environment on purpose hunters fishermen and those in the pet trade often release non-native animals for one reason or another for example many people have released pet burmese pythons into the everglades swamp in south florida these huge snakes can grow up to 20 feet long originally native to the jungles of southeast asia the burmese python has few predators in the everglades and thus feast on many of the unsuspecting local species continuing with snakes brown tree snakes were accidentally brought to guam in the late 1940s and 50s and because the island was full of birds rodents and other small animals they like to hunt the snakes quickly multiplied and are considered to be responsible for the extinction of nine of the island's 11 forest dwelling bird species much like the zebra mussel invasive species have a very clear monetary impact the water high synth is a plant native to south america that has become an invasive species in many parts of the world people often introduce the plant which grows quickly in the water because of its pretty flowers during bloom but as it spreads it can quickly overtake everything around it choking out the local wildlife and causing fishing industries to decline in lake victoria uganda they grew so thickly that boats could not get through causing some ports to close down so what's being done about the invasive species once they are discovered well in the 1970s fish farmers in the southern united states imported asian carp but one day the cart made a break for it and escaped into the mississippi river now the asian carp swims in the water of at least 23 states destroying the biodiversity in many bodies of water how do you kill the fish well the u.s geological survey has developed a poison but some fishermen just go out and shoot them with arrows as they jump out of the water others however are catching the carp and eating them they say it tastes similar to tilapia dealing with the asian carp reflects on the problems humans face when trying to control or eradicate any invasive species you would think that killing these pests would be an easy thing especially when considering that when a non-native species enters a new ecosystem only about 10 percent of the population will survive and of those survivors only about 10 percent become pests so what's the problem at first all infestation is localized in fact it's so local that humans don't even know it's occurring eventually the species breeds and gradually moves into other areas however the climate has to be just right and the conditions have to be perfect for an invasive species to take over a new area that means the area has to lack natural enemies including parasites predators or pathogens some species such as aphids spread more easily than others because a male is not required for fertilization by the time humans figure out an invasive species has taken over an area it's usually too late to easily do anything about it but we try to anyway there are two main ways of controlling an invasive species the first is something researchers call proactive management that means excluding species by passing laws banning certain animals plants food and other products from coming into a country officials can catch many invasive species by stepping up border inspections proactive management also means destroying an invasive population during the early stages of infestation in california environmental officials successfully beat back an invasive weed that can occur in tropical waters when state officials spotted the plant they shrouded it with tarpoulins and poured chlorine on top killing the wheat before it had a chance to spread the second way to control invasive species is through reactive management that could mean doing nothing or it could mean controlling the invaders by limiting their capacity to reproduce this might mean planting crops that are resistant to a plant disease or it could mean planting during a time of the year when pests aren't around or we could fight nature with nature and introduce another species to act as a predator in australia the prickly pear cactus which is native to the americas was growing out of control the cactus was destroying rangeland where ranchers raised livestock so the government brought in cactus moth caterpillars to eat the cactuses acting as a natural predator introducing other species can be dangerous however sometimes they also damage a different species becoming an invasive species themselves on a small island in the sub-antarctic region a research station was built and a problem was born the island had been claimed by south africa in 1947 and the research station was established on marion island soon after the buildings almost immediately began suffering from a severe mouse infestation some of which may have snuck onto the island on the vessels that the researchers themselves had arrived on and so a simple solution was adopted in 1949 five domestic cats were imported to take care of the unwanted pests but nobody neutered the animals the consequences were disastrous within 30 years those five cats turned into 3 500 feral cats on the 12 mile by 7 mile island the thousands of cats quickly began turning their attention from the mice to the rare birds on the island that the researchers had come to study in the first place the birds of marion island suffered greatly with several species going extinct on the island and even some of the penguins suffering severe population depletion in the area the tragic story was made even worse with its conclusion in 1977 in an effort to save what nature was left on the island a specific feline virus was introduced wiping out the entire cat population leaving the island to try and recover from the devastation it had incurred [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Learn Something New

Views: 22,290

Keywords: Invasive Species, Kudzu, Zebra Mussel, Marion Island

Id: lZUliR5Di-g

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 29 2022