Environmental science concepts and applications

Environmental Science

The issue of non-native and often invasive species has been a concern for the environment scientists over the decades. The animals, fish and plants that are introduced to a new environment often have two reactions, either demise or invade and dominate and rarely will one find that there is a smooth cohabitation between the new species and the native species. Focusing on plants in specific, most species that are used in gardens represent none native species which can result to two things; they can either become invasive and put at risk the native species that are in existence or they can end up dying at the end of each season. As a policy maker I will look at some of the disadvantages of having non-native species in my area and suggest alternative ways of achieving the same ends without necessarily involving the non-native species.

The introduction of non-native species has continued to raise a lot of ecological concern in the world. There are various disadvantages that these nonnative species can cause on any land where they are introduced in. Once these nonnative species are introduced in a new area, they might end up invading the new areas which are adjacent to that particular area they occupy through natural dispersal such as transport by water current. This can lead to invasion of these non-native species in areas that were not intended to be introduced. Secondly these nonnative species can end up displacing the native species by preying on them or even out-competing them for resources like space, food or both.in some cases this can lead to the elimination of indigenous species from an area where the non-native species have invaded. Apart from competition there can also be predation, habitat alteration, herbivory, disease as well as some genetic alterations. All these occur when non-native species are introduced in areas where native species are found. Another disadvantage is that the nonnative species can end up reproducing with native species in an area leading to creation of hybrids .these hybrids end up altering the genetic pool in a process referred to as genetic pollution which is a change that can not be reversed. Another thing is that once some nonnative species have established themselves in an area it becomes very difficult to get rid of them and in some occasion it is impossible to remove them (Manchester & Bullock, 2001). The introduction of non-native species in an area leads to detrimental ecological impacts such as decline in biodiversity as well as leading to climatic change which can result to an increase in the susceptibility of the environment to invasion of various ecosystems in an area. With all this it means that introduction of non-native species in an area eventually leads to the threatening of native species which often leads to their extinction and being wiped out from the face of the earth completely.