My understanding from the ecological literature is that invasives are not responsible for nearly as many native species extinctions as one would intuitively imagine, and mostly only when trophic interactions, mainly predation, are involved. Invasive plants, rather than causing extinctions among native plants, appear primarily to change and disrupt ecosystem function through shifting dominance patterns, fire regimes, etc.
I have been surprised about the lack of documented native extinctions due to invasive plants (main exceptions seem to be isolated island systems). My question: are there studies / documentation to support the idea that invasive plants cause, or are at least correlated with, native plant extinctions? Just to conflagrate the issue here, here's a link to a recent NYTimes opinion article from a horticulturalist in the issue of invasives -- a view from the other side of the fence! http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/opinion/19ball.html?ex=1144296000&en=b173e8d3fdb8d5e2&ei=5070 Teresa Teresa Woods Graduate Assistant Division of Biology 232 Ackert Hall Kansas State University Manhattan, KS 66506 785-532-9834 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
