“What harm can a little plant possibly do?”
Invasive Plants and Biodiversity: “What harm can a little plant possibly do?”
I get this question from a lot of people: “What harm can a little plant possibly do?”
The simple answer:
The answer to that question is” Billions of dollars in damage and control efforts, and the most significant loss of biodiversity in history!
We are talking serious, almost irreparable damage to eco systems, and it has gone global! A vine that might be fine in China, may swallow an entire forest in the Southern part of the United States! An aquatic fern may present no problems in it’s native South America, yet engulf rivers, ponds and lakes in the Southern U.S.
Such are the cases of Kudzu and Salvinia Molesta. There are dozens of others, and with the nature of global commerce and global travel, we can expect many more!
When these plants invade, they may be relatively inactive for years, then make giant leaps, seemingly, over night! Salvinia Molesta can double in 5 to 7 days, moving from 1 plant to 60 million in under 2 months, and I have personally watched kudzu grow measurably on a warm summer day!
The numbers:
According to the National Invasive Species Information Center, some estimates put the economic cost associated with invasive species damage and control efforts at more than $100 billion a year in the United States. That is some of the economic damage, but the cost in terms of lost native species is beyond our capacity to fully understand!
The numbers are difficult for our minds to process, you need to see it, and let the sinking feeling take hold.
Seeing forests disappear into unrecognizable blobs, and lakes suddenly take on the appearance of lawns, can be pretty convincing!
September 2, 2008
Tags: Exotic species, Invasive species Posted in: Biodiversity, Exotic aquatic plants, Exotic plant migration, Exotic plants, Invasive plants, Invasive species, Non native plants
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