[Taxacom] Propagation of invasive species definitions

[Stephen Thorpe]

>certainly ecologists commonly distinguish those that move into intact habitat 
>from those that are restricted to human disturbance

as per my previous post, distinguishing and defining are two different things 
... perhaps we need a new term for intact habitat invaders, as a salient 
subcategory of invasive species in general. Maybe "intactovaders" ???



________________________________
From: Curtis Clark <lists at curtisclark.org>
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Sent: Sun, 12 September, 2010 3:45:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Propagation of invasive species definitions

  On 9/11/2010 6:26 AM, Frederick W. Schueler wrote:
> * okay, the question is, what is invaded? At least in Canada, again, 
> in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the original idea was that it was 
> habitats otherwise undisturbed by people that are invaded, so that 
> "invasive" species don't include those that malacologists call 
> synanthropic, however abundant these may be. The metaphor was that the 
> invasive species marches into the woods or wetlands on its own, like 
> an invading army conquering territory, rather than being set up by 
> overt human creation of its habitat.

California has its share of "invasive species" by any definition, and 
certainly ecologists commonly distinguish those that move into intact 
habitat from those that are restricted to human disturbance. At issue, 
though, is the scope and intensity of human disturbance. There is clear 
evidence that nitrogen precipitated from air pollution allows many 
invasive grasses to expand into habitat in which they would otherwise 
not be competitive. So one could realistically say that in some parts of 
California, there are no habitats that are not impacted by human 
disturbance.


-- 
Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Director, I&IT Web Development                  +1 909 979 6371
University Web Coordinator, Cal Poly Pomona


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