Spring Break
Lecture examines invasive species
Jeff Sullivan
Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: News
10/07/08 - While there is much research on how invasive species affect their native counterparts, there is little on how they can affect the ecosystem as a whole.
Bernard Blossey, an ecology professor from Cornell University, intends to change all that by studying which species negatively affect eastern forest ecosystems, and in what capacity. He spoke yesterday in the University of Rhode Island's Coastal Institute.
Blossey's lecture, titled, "How Worms, Weeds, Slugs and Deer Shape our Eastern Forests," examined the different ways these organisms can affect ecosystems.
Blossey said classifying, quantifying and managing detrimental invasive species in the ecosystem is difficult. Just because an invasive species is surviving in an ecosystem does not necessarily mean it harms the habitat. In some situations even native species, like the white tailed deer, can disrupt the balance of an area simply by being overpopulated or fenced in by human construction.
"When they ask the question, 'who is the most important actor,' we very often do not know," he said. "What sets a white flowering [green] plant- apart from another white flowering green plant, other than its origin? Is there something fundamentally different between the two species? Why do we worry?"
Blossey said an invasive plant is usually only an issue if it becomes dominant in the habitat and crowds the other native plants. Garlic mustard, he said, was considered detrimental because it flourished in vast numbers and grew very quickly, and it was believed at the time that it would spread like wildfire.
Instead, he said, it stayed in the areas it started growing in, and was not as big of a problem as initially thought.
Native white-tailed deer are a much bigger concern, Blossey said, and since they have been corralled into much smaller areas and their natural predators have been severely reduced, their food sources have dwindled drastically.
Combined with the fact deer always prefer the biggest and most sexually developed flowers, they can inhibit the growth of the next generation.
Bernard Blossey, an ecology professor from Cornell University, intends to change all that by studying which species negatively affect eastern forest ecosystems, and in what capacity. He spoke yesterday in the University of Rhode Island's Coastal Institute.
Blossey's lecture, titled, "How Worms, Weeds, Slugs and Deer Shape our Eastern Forests," examined the different ways these organisms can affect ecosystems.
Blossey said classifying, quantifying and managing detrimental invasive species in the ecosystem is difficult. Just because an invasive species is surviving in an ecosystem does not necessarily mean it harms the habitat. In some situations even native species, like the white tailed deer, can disrupt the balance of an area simply by being overpopulated or fenced in by human construction.
"When they ask the question, 'who is the most important actor,' we very often do not know," he said. "What sets a white flowering [green] plant- apart from another white flowering green plant, other than its origin? Is there something fundamentally different between the two species? Why do we worry?"
Blossey said an invasive plant is usually only an issue if it becomes dominant in the habitat and crowds the other native plants. Garlic mustard, he said, was considered detrimental because it flourished in vast numbers and grew very quickly, and it was believed at the time that it would spread like wildfire.
Instead, he said, it stayed in the areas it started growing in, and was not as big of a problem as initially thought.
Native white-tailed deer are a much bigger concern, Blossey said, and since they have been corralled into much smaller areas and their natural predators have been severely reduced, their food sources have dwindled drastically.
Combined with the fact deer always prefer the biggest and most sexually developed flowers, they can inhibit the growth of the next generation.
