Invasive species are those that get introduced into a habitat and readily establ

Question

Invasive species are those that get introduced into a habitat and readily establish. This is because they may have to predators, parasites or pathogens in their new habitat. The population growth of the invasives may be extreme, to the competitive detriment of the native species that occupied the habitat. a) Identify ONE invasive species (other than zebra mussels) in the United States that poses a threat to native species due to INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION, how and where it got introduced, and what its current distribution is. b) Identify at least one native species that the invasive species is competing with, and at least one resource that is the object of the competition. c) What is the outcome of the competitive interaction described in b (coexistence, extinction, etc.)?

Explanation / Answer

a) Native species are those that live in a specific ecosystem. Other species that migrate or accidentally introduced in to another ecosystem are called as non native species or invasive or exotic species. Wild African honey bees known as killer bees were imported to Brazil and caused damaged to native honey bees.

b) Water hyacinth is a beautiful aquatic plant, introduced to the U.S. from South America as an ornamental plant. It outcompetes the native water plants. IWater hyacinth forms dense mats and reduces reaching of sunlight to submerged plants and aquatic organisms. It results in crowding out native aquatic plants and clogging waterways and intake pipes. The water hyacinth competes for surface occupation with other native plants.

c) In some interactions, invasive species completely dominates the native species and causes extinction of native species. Some invasive species allow the native species to coexist with them. It depends on interaction between invasive and native species whether they coexist or cause extinction of native species.

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