Under The Radar: The Dangers Of Invasive Species

Under the Radar: The Dangers of Invasive Species

Imagine a world where life was destroyed by selfish human mistakes. The imaginary may become reality if people don't become more aware of their effect on their surroundings. The first thing a business company considers before shipping their products is most likely not the possibility of spreading a dangerous disease to a foreign country, but it is a real possibility. Invasive species can cause damage behind the scenes that overtime, can turn into a major problem. Non-native species are not native for a reason; they aren’t supposed to be there in the first place. To avoid potential disaster, a business or government agency would need to consider the fact that invasive species can harm the environment,

people, and economy of a country before they decide to transport them.
In a situation where a company is shipping products to a new place, the environment should really be considered more thourghougly.

Either accidentally or on purpose, organisms for one country can be transported to a new environment which may not seem important at first, but can cause many problems down the road. Endangered species are often put in further danger of extinction with the introduction of invasive species and this is sometimes due to situations like a company shipping products and indirectly releasing a non-native species into an unstable ecosystem. Island ecosystems are especially vulnerable and because islands usually encompass a small land area, they are composed of a single ecosystem which is the reason for the unstablility. Endangered species are more likely to become extinct with the introduction of an invasive species, which not only can kill off an entire species, but could cause harm to other natives as well (Little). All organisms are interconnected in an ecosystem and if one part of that system were to become eliminated or unbalanced, there could be extreme effects to all of the other organisms. In fact, 95% of all sea bird species are actually extinct because of situations like this (Little). So many species could be saved in the future if people would be more aware of the consequences of their

actions.
There are many more negative consequences to the environment companies do not consider before doing business.

For instance, an increase in endangered species can lead to a decrease in biodiversity, which allows the invasive species to take over the environment with ease. Letting an invasive species population get out of control can lead to the destruction of an ecosystem and in almost no time at all, an ecosytem can be overrun with an invasive species because they don’t have many predators in this new environment to control their populations. With a new environment to adapt to, invasive species consume a wide variety of organisms because they are all available to them. A well known law in ecology, Competitive Exclusion, states that no two species can occupy the same lifestyle and resources. This means that invasive species out compete natives for their resources because they have few limiting factors on their population, which is why the native species are sometimes killed off. On one occasion, people tried to import the cane toad to Australia as pest control, but the toads killed everything in sight and their populations spread. Insects and bird eggs are in danger, even many potential predators were killed because the toads are poisonous to consume (Spotts). Countless defenseless animals are in danger because of instances like this and should be considered when making desicions to transport

materials.
Many people aren't aware, but invasive species can cause diseases that spread put many in danger. Humans set themselves up for this potential problem every time they utilize any form of transportation. Many invasive species are actually introduced accidentally when people travel by plane, train, ship, vehicle, etc. The SARS respiratory virus was spread in this way all over the world causing many deaths. When scientists investigated this illness, they found that animal traders were more suseptible to the virus and that non-native civets (small catlike animals) played a role in the spreading of the disease. It is believed that through a complicated chain of interactions between humans, animals, and transportation devices, the disease was spread worldwide (Dybas). Another example of this, H. Influenzae, is a common disease that people often get vaccines for, and was actually spread by the transportation of an invasive disease. It can be a deadly virus if it results in pnemonia (Langereis). There are many factors that build up to the spread of these diseases that are usually indirectly the people’s fault. If saving animals or the environment does not seem important enough to regulate company exports to foregin countries, human lives and the health of many populations should be a motivation to make some changes.
It’s unexpected, but the economy of a country can actually suffer with the introduction of even the smallest non-native species. Crop destruction is the main devastating economicas effect of invasive species. It’s hard to imagine that one species of organism can destroy an entire country’s crop production, and in effect the entire industry, making the lives of consumers and producers increasingly difficult. Just one of many examples of this occured in Hawaii, which has the ideal conditions for growing papaya and some even use that as a single crop for production and base their livelihood off of it. That is, until the exotic microbe, the papaya ringspot virus, invaded and wiped out entire fields of papaya. This grew into an epidemic, destroying the local economy (Devine). Once again, this just proves how everything is interconntected; if the virus kills all the crops, the farmers do not have anything to sell and can not make a living, but local consumers also may be relying on those crops that were destroyed and won't have any products to live off of. So many lives are affected by a few organisms that don't even belong in that area.
Looking at the United States’ history, it is clear that most economic depressions all started because of agricultural and industry failure, but people don't realize that these invasive species can cause the same damage as these economic depressions. Clearly, these non-native species need to be stopped before all of the tragic consequences previously mentioned ensue, but there is a major roadblock. Eradication is the most effective method for dealing with invasive species, but that itself is very costly. Very large amounts of pesticides, herbicides, traps, or other methods are needed because even if many of the organisms can be seen by people, there are countless others all over the ecosystem, and the eradication won’t be effective unless the majority of the population is taken care of. These methods are costly on such a large scale which leads some areas to be trapped in an economic cycle of the invasive species hurting the economy, but the solution to this problem is not always affordable (Olmsted). Although eradication methods have been proven somewhat effective, there is no guarantee that it will work, especially when most invasive species are able to thrive and reproduce quickly. This draws out the process even longer along with the amount spent on eradication methods which will affect the economy later on (Olmsted). These invasive species must be contained, but some people don't have the resources to achieve this. Therefore, shipping companies need to consider the possibly negative economic outcomes of their actions.
If a business or government agency doesn’t have control over the invasive species they export, many consequences will affect the environment, people, and economy of that country. These factors are all interconnected and just one population of invasive species can set off a chain reaction of disastrous effects. Of course, buisnesses need to export products or the global economy could fall apart, but there are a number of disasters that could be avoided by better planning and more thourogh inspections, new ideas, and cooperation to stop the spreading of invasive species. In conclusion, humans need to be more aware of their surroundings and consider if the risks of destroying an entire country are really worth it when dealing with invasive species.