Invasive_Species_Essays

Many things can disrupt and cause chaos in ecosystems. Huge benefactors of disrupting ecosystems are invasive species. Invasive species are non-native organisms unknown to a certain ecosystem. They are capable of acting aggressively in another habitat and take over the resources including sunlight, food, water and space. Usually and most likely their invasion causes economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. Invasive species can be plants, animals or any other living organism and are introduced as invasive species by means of human actions. Although trading and importing world wide can be a good thing, the transferring of species into other habitats and ecosystems can be very harmful and dangerous to our environment. There are many things businesses and the government should consider before doing so. Source A shows how a forest of balsam fir trees were killed by an infestation of balsam woolly adelgids. If the trees lasted so long before being brought down, the species that did the deed weren’t there until recently. Invasive species don’t just crawl into other ecosystems absentmindedly. They are transferred by humans themselves. Sometimes, this is done by humans without them even knowing it. This happens very often though it’s not the only way. Humans purposely bring these invasive species to look for new ways to make them thrive in our country. What they don’t realize is this can cause various effects on our ecosystem and habitat. The balsam woolly adelgids are only one of many harmful invasive species. For papaya growers Jenny and Delan Perry, planting the trees on their new farm on the Big Island in Hawaii was a great success, or so they thought. Their story is relevant in Source D, an excerpt by Devine, Robert. At the beginning the papaya trees flourished since the conditions seemed perfect for papaya. But in the year of 1992 things went downhill. An exotic microbe, known as the papaya ringspot virus, had taken over the fields and ruined their papaya. Now that is something we should consider when even thinking about transferring species. Instead of thinking just how it will benefit us, we should think about how it will affect us, both negatively and positively. Another thing businesses and government should consider when transferring invasive species is the economy. This environmental problem also costs businesses millions of dollars every year. The desire of new foods in America is a non-ending obsession. Chefs and cooks are always searching for that new dish with the innovative key ingredient, animal, or just a new vegetable. Because of this many of these non native plants or animals are being brought into places they are not meant to live in and many are damaging the economy.