Invasive Species

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Invasive Species

• Why are invasive species a problem?
• Invasive invertebrates
• Earthworm
• Invasive plants
• Invasive invertebrates
• insects
• What you can do

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Threats to Biodiversity

• Human changes to the landscape
• Climate change
• Changes in atmosphere
• Changes in ozone levels
• Introduction of other species

Amazon Basin, Brazil
3
Estimated Cost of Invasive Species
1. Economic Costs Cost of the crop losses
caused by imported weeds, insects and diseases,
Losses in timber production and
fisheries, 500,000,000 we pay to battle invasive
plants in our lawns all gardens The total comes
to an annual bill for 137 billion More than the
cost of every other sort of natural disaster,
earthquake, hurricanes, floods, combined.
Data from Tom Stohlgren, Cornell University, in
T. Christopher, House Garden.
http//kiowa.colostate.edu/cwis438/niiss/
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Estimated Cost of Invasive Species
2. Environmental Costs, 40 of threatened and
endangered species are effected by invasive
species 3. Human Health costs West Nile Virus,
malaria, AIDS, think back to European diseases
on natives of North America
Data from Tom Stohlgren, Cornell University, in
T. Christopher, House Garden.
http//kiowa.colostate.edu/cwis438/niiss/
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From the Ground Up

• Invasive, non-native species are of concern to
  ecologists due to their ability to alter the
  environments they invade.
• Earthworms are an invasive non-native species in
  northern temperate forests.
• European in origin, they arrived in the US with
  settlers during the 1800's.

http//www.ecostudies.org/people_sci_groffman_eart
hworms.html
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What was the New England landscape like 14,000
years ago?

• Could earthworms live beneath the ice?
• South of the glacial advance there are still
  native North American earthworm species.
• Why wouldnt earthworms have recolonized North
  America?
• Theyre slow!

http//www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/graphic0/geomorph/usagl
ac.gif http//www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/withdisturban
ce.html
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What was the New England landscape like 14,000
years ago?

• Earthworm populations spread at about 5
  yards/year.
• How far could they have moved since deglaciation?
• 14,000 years since deglaciation
• 1760 yards per mile
• equals approximately 70,000 yards or 40 miles.
• Distance to Griswold Pt (this weeks field trip
  28 miles)
• Aided in their journey by anglers!

http//www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/graphic0/geomorph/usagl
ac.gif http//www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/withdisturban
ce.html
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Characteristics of Invasive Plants

• Rapid growth and maturity
• Prolific seed production
• Highly successful seed dispersal, germination and
  colonization
• Rampant vegetative growth
• Ability to out compete non-invasive species
• High cost and effort to remove and control

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Invasive Examples
Invasive Examples
Invasive exotic Japanese honeysuckle Lonicera
japonica
Invasive hyrbid Phragmites Phragmites
australlis http//www.ulsamer.at/db/phragmites-aus
tralis-2.jpg

• Invasive native
• Pokeberry
• Phytolacea americana

Image http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/Lonijapo
.html
Image http//www.botany.wisc.edu/courses/botany_4
00/PlantsofDay/pokeweed.jpg
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• Plants in the landscape
• Images of 6 plants
• Which are native to NE Unites States?
• Which are considered invasive?

Image http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/Lonijap
o.html
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Invasive? Native?

• 1) Purple loosestrife (Lythrun salicaria)
• Non-native, Invasive

Image http//community.webshots.com/sym/image2/3
/92/92/45939292xeJSjX_fs.jpg
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Invasive? Native?

• 2) Queen Annes Lace (Daucus carota)
• Non-native, Invasive ?

Image http//www.desotostatepark.com/photogallery
/wildflowers/queen20annes20lace.jpg
Image http//www.cees.iupui.edu/project_images/wh
iteriver/Flora_Fauna/20020711_queen-annes-lace-pla
nts.JPG
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Left Image http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/photos/ros
mu06.jpg

• 3) Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora)
• Non-native, Invasive

Top Image http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/photos/rosm
u03.jpg
Image http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/photos/rosmu01.
jpg
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• 4) Pink lady slipper (Cypripedium acaule)
• Native, non-invasive

Imagehttp//www.desotostatepark.com/photogallery/
wildflowers/pink20lady20slipper.jpg
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• 5) Dandelion (Taraxcum officinale)
• Non-native, Invasive?

right image http//www.riversidehifi.com/gifs/dand
ilion.jpg
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Native to What?
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What About Trees? - Big Offender Tree

• Tree of Life (Ailanthus altissima)

Images http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/photos/ailal01
.jpg to ailal03.jpg
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Think of changes to NE trees in the last 100
years your lifetime

• American Elm
• America Chestnut
• Hemlock
• Now- Maple, oak, beech
• What will/has filled their niche?

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American Elm (Ulmus americana)
Images http//users.aol.com/bcarley978/elmpost.ht
tp//www.championtrees.org/champions/images/elmame
rican.jpg
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Dutch Elm Disease

• Dutch elm disease is caused by the fungus
  Ophiostoma ulmi (syn. Ceratocystis ulmi) which is
  transmitted by 2 species of bark beetles or by
  root grafting.
• Arrived in Europe ( probably from Asia) early
  20th century, marked by the sudden decline and
  death of millions of elms in the first two
  decades of this century.
• In 1920, the fungus responsible for the
  mysterious death of Europe's elm trees was
  positively identified by a scientist working in
  Holland leading to the name Dutch elm disease.
• 1930 first found in the US in Ohio.
• Spread throughout North America and has
  destroyed over half the elm trees in the northern
  United Sates.
• The disease has been reported in all states
  except the desert Southwest.

Smaller European elm bark beetle (top) and native
elm bark beetle (bottom).
Image http//www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/plantsci/t
rees/pp324-3.gif
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http//www.colorado.edu/geography/virtdept/module/
biosphere/appendix/brown/figures/figure12.html
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American Chestnut Castanea dentata

• One of the most important trees of forests from
  Maine south to Florida, from the Piedmont west to
  the Ohio valley.
• Common tree, a tree count would have turned up 1
  chestnut for every 4 oaks, birches, maples and
  other hardwoods.
• Important source of food for native wildlife
• Important source of income for farmers
• Important timber tree

http//www.acf.org/Chestnut_history.htm
http//www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/
cdentata.htm, http//www.colorado.edu/geography/vi
rtdept/module/biosphere/appendix/brown/figures/fig
ure10/maple.html
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• Natural range of American Chestnut.
• In virgin forests diameters of 8 to 10 feet were
  not uncommon.
• Walker Shelton's family standing by a chestnut
  tree, circa 1920, Tremont Falls, TN (Photo
  courtesy Great Smoky Mountains National Park
  Library)
• Why such a popular tree?

Image http//www.acf.org/
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American Chestnut

• Chestnut blight -1904 - discovered in 1904 in New
  York City, the lethal Asian fungus
• By 1950, except for the shrubby root sprouts the
  species continually produces (and which also
  quickly become infected),
• Keystone species on some nine million acres of
  eastern forests had disappeared.

Images http//www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/sy
llabus/cdentata.htm
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Whats happening right now?

• Wooly adelgid
• Asian long-horned beetle

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Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
Images http//www.nhdfl.org/protection_bureau/for
_prot_images/hwalrg.jpg http//www.colorado.edu/ge
ography/virtdept/module/biosphere/appendix/brown/f
igures/figure10/hemlock.html
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• Hemlock Wooly Adelgis (HWA) Adelges tsugae
  Annand, is an insect pest native to Japan.
• HWA is parthenogenic (all adults are female)
• Each adult can produce between 50-300 eggs within
  her lifetime.
• 2 generations per year
• No natural enemies in N.America.
• Infestations on eastern hemlock and Carolina
  hemlock are generally fatal, and death occurs
  usually within 4-6 yrs.
• First report of HWA in the USA was in the Pacific
  Northwest in 1924.
• 1954, the first east coast report was in Maymont
  Park, Virginia.
• HWA is now active in 12 east coast states from NC
  to MA

Image http//www.nhdfl.org/protection_bureau/for_
prot_images/hwa_map.gif
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http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/adeltsug.html
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Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora
glabripennis)

• Introduced into the USA in 1996 from China
• Larvae of the beetle tunnel throughout the tree
  resulting in limb breakage, dieback of the tree
  crown, and tree death.
• Reproducing populations of A. glabripennis have
  been found in New York City and Chicago.

Images http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/anopgl
ab.html
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Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora
glabripennis)

• In the USA a complete host list has not been
  determined but the beetle prefers sycamores and
  maples, (red, silver, sugar, Norway and box
  elder. )
• Other species it has infested in the US include
  horse chestnut, black locust, elms, birches,
  willows, poplars and ash.
• Chemical control methods have been ineffective.

Image http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/anopgla
b.html
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How much will these 2 new infestations change the
landscape?
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Unintended consequences - Japanese Barberry
Berberis thunbergii
Deer dont eat it
http//courses.smsu.edu/pab532f/GoldenBarberry.jpg
. http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/photos/berth04.jpg
Birds love it
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A Different Kind of Environmental Disaster
Japanese Barberry infested forest
Quabbin Reservoir, MA

• tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/ photosa-c.html
• http//users.chronomedia.com/snec-swcs/SWCSSummer0
  2_dfwquabbin.jpg

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Can we escape the rapid introduction of new
species?
http//tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/dreipoly.html
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What can you do?

• Participate in invasive species eradication
  programs
• Dont bring new species into the country
• When buying plants at a nursery make sure they
  are not invasive
• Educate yourself http//kiowa.colostate.edu/cwis4
  38/niiss/

http//kiowa.colostate.edu/cwis438/niiss/