In Brazil, honeysuckle, pine trees, mulberry, several Asian trees whose English names I cannot remember (if I ever knew) are all pests, and there is an herbaceous plants, smells like honeysuckle, that is from Madagascar, that is now naturalized throughout tropical America. Okay, those are some old world and northern American pests in tropical America.
On the other hand, Brazilian pepper along with many many other American plants are pests elsewhere, including Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Asia and Europe. It is a two way street. But, I highly recommend you go back to Elton, the classic book, The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants, written in 1958 to see all kinds of examples and some good thinking about the causes and consequences! Jim On 24/Aug/08 19:20, Wayne wrote: > All: > > Within their genetic limits, when environments present > closely-matching characteristics within those limits, organisms will > tend to thrive; to the extent that the match is not close, they will > not thrive as much or will be extirpated.* > > I hope you all will help create as simple a statement as possible by > modifying or replacing this one. I am trying to distill the principles > of ecology into the simplest possible statements. > > WT > > *I believe that this statement ultimately answers all of Patton's > questions, but I am interersted in hearing others. > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Geoffrey Patton" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 5:19 AM > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Salix success? Success of exotics? > > > > Why do so many exotics species become alien pests? We are all aware of > the explanation for that success being the lack of predatory species. > Is this all there is to the story? Could their longer evolution in > their "homeland" have given them genetic advantages? Do as many New > World species become invasive exotics in the Old World? > > Geoff Patton > --- On Sat, 8/23/08, David Inouye <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > From: David Inouye <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Salix success? > To: [email protected] > Date: Saturday, August 23, 2008, 11:20 PM > > What makes Salix (willows) so successful at high latitudes and high > altitudes? Unusual physiological traits? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ James J. Roper Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Bocas del Toro Marine Research Station Unit 0948 APO AA 34002 Skype-in (USA):+1 706 5501064 Skype-in (Brazil): 41 39415715 E-mail - personal: [EMAIL PROTECTED] E-mail - consulting: [EMAIL PROTECTED] STRI Bocas del Toro <http://www.stri.org/english/research/facilities/marine/bocas_del_toro/index.php> Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Conservação <http://www.bio.ufpr.br/ecologia/> Educational Pages <http://jjroper.googlepages.com/> Ars Artium Consulting <http://arsartium.googlepages.com/> 9^o 21.122' N, and 82^o 15.390' W In Google Earth, copy and paste -> 9 21.122' S, 82 15.390' W ------------------------------------------------------------------------
