Invasive Species Grant Mulligan

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Invasive SpeciesGrant Mulligan
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Outline

• Invasive Birds
• Invasive Plants
• Climate Change

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House Sparrows

• Ubiquitous in urban areas
• Brought over from Europe
• Kills native bird species actively or passively
• Compete for resources
• Graphic Pictures Follow

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"Without question the most deplorable event in
the history of American ornithology was the
introduction of the English Sparrow." -W.L.
Dawson, The Birds of Ohio, 1903
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Invasive Species

• Are Invasive Species a Major Cause of
  Extinctions?
• have negative effects on the functional
  relationships between birds, their prey, and prey
  habitat
• Lehmann lovegrass
• Buffelgrass
• Out-compete native species

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Invasive Plants

• Invasive exotic plants are a major threat to many
  species of wild birds.
• Long-term and often irreversible habitat
  degradation for birds and other animals.
• Overall bird abundance was 32 greater on
  native-grass sites than on exotic-grass sites
  (Flanders).

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Climate Change

• Becoming a heated policy issue
• Public concern growing
• Causing rapid change in habitats
• Extraordinary rate of species extinction
• Potential effects devastating to ecosystems
  worldwide.

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Climate Change

• There are examples of invasive species altering
  the evolutionary pathway of native species by
  competitive exclusion, niche displacement,
  hybridization, introgression, predation, and
  ultimately extinction (Mooney).
• Process accelerated by global change brought on
  by warming

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Conclusions

• Must address invasive species problem.
• Must actively manage lands to protect them from
  invasive species.
• Greater effort to exterminate invasive species
• More education research needed.
• Limit Global Warming

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Works Cited

• Mooney, H. A., and E. E. Cleland. "The
  Evolutionary Impact of Invasive Species."
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  of the United States of America 98 (2001)
  5446-5451.
• Gurevitch, Jessica, and Dianna K. Padilla. "Are
  Invasive Species a Major Cause of Extinctions?"
  Trends in Ecology 19 (2004) 470-474.
• Flanders, Aron A., et al. " Effects of Invasive
  exotic grasses on south Texas rangeland breeding
  birds." The Auk 123 (2006) 171-182.
• www.sialis.org/battles.htm (Pictures)