Non-native and Invasive Species Management

Non-native Species and Invasive Species

• Non-native species: organisms brought outside their native range by human activity.
• Invasive species: non-native species harmful to the economy, environment, or human health.
• Modes of transportation for non-native/invasive species: pet/aquarium trade, ornamental plants, food/fur industry, pest control, stowaways.
• Ballast water transports millions of organisms across oceans.
• After translocation, 10% of species appear in the wild, and 10% become invasive species.

Propagule Pressure

• Propagule pressure: high number of release events, large number of individuals released, large genetic diversity of released individuals (e.g., harbors, tourist destinations).

Management of Non-native Species

• Prevention (e.g., ballast water treatment, import restrictions, quarantine).
• Eradication (for small populations).
• Containment (restrict population spread).
• Site protection (protect small locations within larger invaded regions).

Pest Species

• Pest species are organisms whose high abundance result in a strong economic burden.

Competitive Release

• Integrated pest management uses multiple techniques to keep pest populations small.
  • Sanitation (removal of pest resources).
  • Physical pest control (excluding and removing pests).
  • Biological pest control (introducing, augmenting, and promoting populations).
  • Chemical pest control (DDT, neonicotinoids, glyphosate).

In Situ Conservation

• In situ conservation: onsite conservation efforts.
  • To restore: make something like it was before.
  • To protect: protect something from disturbances.
  • To maintain: keep something as it is.
  • To improve: make something better (bigger) than it is.
  • To connect: improve the connectivity of something.

Advantages of In Situ

• Applicable to ecosystems.
• Cheaper.
• Conservation of other organisms and habitat.
• Potential to engage local communities.
• Higher likelihood of sustainability.

Disadvantages of In Situ

• Little/no control over some variables (storm events, poaching).
• Typically smaller population growth.
• Spatial limitations.
• Potential for resistance to local communities.

Habitat Conservation Management

• Small spatial scale/population scale.
• Patch scale/community scale.
• Landscape scale/ecosystem scale.

Poaching

• Poaching: illegal gathering of wild flora or fauna.

Ex Situ Conservation

• Ex situ conservation: conservation efforts that include removal of individuals out of their natural range.

Advantages of Ex Situ

• Removal from in situ threats.
• Produced individuals can be reintroduced elsewhere.
• Effective medical attention.
• Effective in environmental education.

Disadvantages of Ex Situ

• High, ongoing costs/need a lot of space.
• Risks associated with removing organisms.
• Small genetic pools.
• Altered animal behavior.
• Ethical issues with removing animals from the wild.

Studbooks

• Studbooks include the pedigree and location history of the population.
• Provides a basis for detailed genetic and demographic analyses.
• Used for management of captive animal populations.

Ex Situ Effects

• Ex situ effects on phenotypic changes (physical and behavioral changes).

Preservation

• Preservation: maintain ecosystems and biodiversity balance and integrity without human interference.

Conservation

• Conservation: human actions to maintain the integrity and balance of ecosystems and biodiversity.
• Minimum viable population (MVP): the smallest isolated population having a 90-99% chance of remaining extant for 1000 years.

Populations under MVP

• Populations under the MVP may decline due to inbreeding, insufficient population densities, low adaptability, and increased isolation (metapopulations).

Extinction Vortex

• Extinction vortex: series of linked processes leading to extinction (e.g., Allee effects, stochasticity, isolation, loss of heterozygosity, increased inbreeding depression).

Extinction Debt

• Extinction debt: future extinction of species due to past disturbances. Higher population numbers and longer generation times delay extinction.

Population Viability Analysis (PVA)

• Population Viability Analysis (PVA): process of calculating MVP for a species.
• Vortex is a common software for PVAs.

Conservation Triage

• Conservation triage: abandoning some populations to extinction to focus resources on those with higher survival chances.

Single-Species Focused Approach

• Keystone species: species significantly impacting their ecosystem and trophic levels.
• Ecosystem engineer: species creating or maintaining habitat for other species.
• Umbrella species: protecting umbrella species indirectly protects other species.
• Flagship species: have large home ranges and/or habitat requirements.

Protecting Flagship Species

• Indirectly protects other species through shared habitat.

Crisis Ecoregion

• Highly converted areas with little protection.

Ecosystem Service Conservation

• Protecting and maintaining habitat & biodiversity.
• Improving ecosystem stability and resilience.
• Supporting surrounding fisheries.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

• Limit/prohibit removing or disrupting marine organisms.

Ecosystem Focused Approach

• Ecosystem biodiversity.
• Ecosystem condition.
• Ecosystem service sustainability (e.g., MPAs).

Conservation Translocation

• Conservation translocation: any release to the wild of wild or captive bred individuals for conservation purposes.

Rewilding

• Rewilding: restoring habitats and ecological interactions.

Translocation Pros & Cons

• Advantages: species survival, increasing global numbers, preventing extinction, restoring ecosystems, economic benefit, potentially ethical responsibility.
• Disadvantages: cost, high failure rate, potential negative impact on other species.

Arguments Against Translocation

• Can be very expensive.
• Relatively high failure rate.
• Can negatively affect other species.
• Difficult to define "success" of translocation programs.

Headstarting

• Technique where individuals are brought into captivity during vulnerable stages of life, then released.

Soft Release

• Acclimatizing individuals to their new environment (enclosures, etc.)

Hard Release

• Releasing individuals directly into their environment.

Conservation Translocation

• Conservation translocation is any release to the wild of wild or captive-bred individuals for any purpose.

Release Sites

• Release sites need to suit all life cycle stages.
• Disease/parasite screening required.

Population Restoration Reinforcement

• Releasing individuals into an area with the species' historical range and existing conspecific population.

Release Site Considerations:

• Suitability
• Carrying capacity
• Species interactions
• Socioeconomic acceptability

Headstarting

• Temporary captivity for vulnerable life stages before release.

Assisted Colonization

• Releasing individuals outside a species' historical range.

Ecological Replacement

• Filling an ecological niche left vacant by a species.

Week 12

• Extinctions are natural, with a background extinction rate.
• Inbreeding depression and population bottlenecks contribute to extinction vortex.
• Conservation triage prioritizes resources based on survival chances, not saving all possible populations.

Week 9

• Boreal forests aren't considered a crisis ecoregion.
• Marine protected areas cover less than 8% of the ocean.
• Marine protected areas don't guarantee protection from exploitation.
• CITES is an ex situ management tool.
• Studbooks focus on the genetic aspects of captive animal populations, not behavior.

Explore the concepts of non-native and invasive species in this quiz. Learn about their impacts, modes of transportation, and effective management strategies. Understand how propagule pressure contributes to the spread of these species and discover prevention, eradication, and containment methods.