Invasive Species Project

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Invasive Species Project
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Can you identify these non-native invasive
species?
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The last word in ignorance is the person who says
of an animal or plant What is good? Aldo
Leopold (Miller 225)Lets ask instead, what
role a certain species plays in an ecosystem.
What is its ecological niche?
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What is an ecological niche?

• It is a species way of life and functional role
  in a community or ecosystem
• Its niche includes the adaptations or adaptive
  traits its members have acquired through natural
  selection.
• It also includes the amount and types of
  resources a species uses.
• (Miller 91)

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• Lets look at the ecological niche of a species
  we find here in our Oak Woodlands. What do oak
  trees do? If you can answer that question you
  know the oak trees "profession" or its
  ecological niche.
• anchor soil with their roots
• absorb sunlight by photosynthesis
• absorb water and mineral salts from the soil
• provide shelter sites for many animals and other
  plants
• act as a support for creeping plants
• serve as a source of food for animals
• cover the ground with their dead leaves in the
  autumn.
• nesting sites for acron woodpeckers and other
  hole nesters

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The Oak is central to the life of of the Acorn
Woodpecker.

• What is the ecological niche of the Acorn
  Woodpecker?
• How would you find out? One contribution it
  makes is in creating nesting holes. These will
  be used not only by the woodpecker itself, but in
  subsequent years by others such as kestrels
  (sparrow hawks), Western bluebirds, house wrens,
  and Northern Flickers. Another contribution is
  their role in the dispersal of the oak seed
  (which we call an acorn).

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Meet the Western Bluebird that nests in abandoned
woodpecker holes.
Western Bluebird

Starlings

• Now meet the European Starling. This is an
  introduced species that came to our continent in
  1890. They were released in Central Park by a
  group of Shakespeare enthusiasts who wanted the
  park filled with all of the species of birds
  referred to by Shakespeare. (Michael Jeneid,
  Shakespeares Birds).

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When does a nonnative species become an invasive
species? Starlings migrated across the country
and reached the West Coast in the 1940s. They
are known for their aggressive harassment of
native birds trying to nest in the same area and
they take over the nesting holes made and used
by woodpeckers, kestrels, flickers, wrens and
bluebirds (to name a few) In one study site in
Western Nevada in 1979, 14 pairs of native birds
that had nested in two large cottonwood trees
were driven away when starlings moved in. 9 of
the native species were hole nesters and 5 used
open nests. 8 pairs of Starlings began nesting
in the cottonwood trees and they drove off
American Kestrels, Mountain bluebirds, Western
bluebirds, Lewis Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers,
House Wrens, Flycatchers, Mourning Doves, House
Finches, Rufous-sided Towhees, and even a pair of
ground nesting Killdeer. (JSTOR condor Vol. 90,
No. 2 (May 1988), pp.515-517)
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Some of the Birds that were Displaced
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Think about the impact the removal of wolves had
on the ecological niches in Yellowstone.

• When the wolves were removed, biodiversity was
  lost and ecological niches disappeared. When the
  wolves returned, the willows recovered and with
  them came the return of moose, muskrat, beaver,
  geese, ducks, birds who live in willows (such as
  willow flycatchers) and a myriad of stream
  organisms

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You are going to select and study the effects of
an invasive species like the starling on a local
ecosystem it has invaded.

• The first step will be to choose your species.
• The next step will be to learn to identify the
  invader
• Then you will be ready to do your study!

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Getting Started
The Quadrat Method of Ecologlical Sampling