Invasive species: Some observations on needs and opportunities for DNA barcoding

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Invasive species Some observations on needs and
opportunities for DNA barcoding

• Scott Miller, CBOL and Smithsonian

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Invasive species

• Agents of ecosystem change, especially when
  threatening biological diversity usually but not
  always an alien (non indigenous) species

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Efforts to manage invasive species will be
greatly enhanced by bringing together knowledge,
tools, and approaches from a range of relevant
disciplines.Global Invasive Species
Programmewww.gisp.org
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Invasives in news headlines in North America

• Asian longhorned beetle (NE USA)
• Emerald ash borer (Michigan)
• Snakehead fish (Maryland)
• Mitten crab (New York)
• Mosquitoes plus West Nile virus and Malaria
• Fruit flies (California, Florida, Hawaii, Texas)
• Avian flu
• Invasives can be any species from anywhere

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Why care ?(annual figures from Costanza et al.
1997, Pimentel et al. 2000)

• Pollinators
• 1/3 of crop production insect pollinated
• Value ca 117 billion (world)
• Soil arthropods
• trillion value to agriculture (world)
• Natural biological control
• 400 billion value (world)
• 100 billion loss to invasive species (USA)

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Identification capabilities and systematics
research are the basis for the prevention and
control of invasive species, such as the cassava
mealybug in Africa
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Accurate identifications vital

• Need to know what to keep out.
• Need to know what is present in other countries
  in order to determine which invasive species we
  want to keep out.
  
• Need to communicate about invasives, their
  biology, and management.

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Regulatory issues impeding understanding?

• Recognizing new invasives requires interchange of
  specimens and data
  
• Need to protect rights of owners and countries
• Now insects often caught between agriculture and
  wildlife regulations
  
• Need wildlife permit to get identification on
  insect eating your crops?

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A cross-sector challengeThe same species, an
ant or weed for example, can be a pest of
agriculture, livestock and conservation, so we
must recognize a continuum of habitats, rather
than separating agriculture from conservation.
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Good or bad depends on your point of view
Jacksons Chameleon an invasive species in Hawa
ii
protected by CITES in East Africa
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Can ants collapse the economy of an island?

• Invasive ants disturb nesting birds
• sole source of tourist economy
• tiny island in Seychelles