>From what I see exotics doing to the systems around me, I would say
extirpations are a bigger problem than extinctions -- same effects as
extinctions but on a local scale. All these local, small scale effects
when considered as being repeated many times over a large area add up to a
big impact.
Mike Gross
Teresa Woods
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04/04/2006 10:56
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Please respond to
Teresa Woods
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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]
