Invasive species
Autor: Luna Barroso | Publicado: 2011-10-02T14:14:00-07:00





   


   Species -&gt;
Criteria&nbsp;|

   Anoplolepis gracilipes (insect)   &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;   Acacia Mearnsii (shrub)   Acridotheres tristis (bird)   &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;   Aedes albopictus (insect)   &nbsp;&nbsp;
   Anopheles quadrimaculatus (insect)  
   Do they grow   fast?   
&nbsp;Ö   
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   Ö   
   
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   Ö   
&nbsp; Ö  
   Do they harm   other populations?   
Ö   
&nbsp;&nbsp; Ö   &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Ö   
   
  
   Are they a   threat to human health?   
Ö   
   
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ö   
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   Ö   
&nbsp; Ö  
   Do they have a   high dispersal ability?   
Ö   
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   Ö   
&nbsp;&nbsp; Ö   &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Ö   
  
   Are they   tolerant to a wide range of environmental conditions?   
   
&nbsp;&nbsp; Ö   &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Ö   

   
  





1) In order to determine the worst invasive species, I chose the five categories listed above: growth, harm to other populations, threat to humans, dispersal ability, and tolerance to environmental conditions. The reason why I chose these five categories is that I believe they are the main determinants of invasive species. Invasive species are commonly defined as being widespread and disruptive. All of the categories that I chose fit into this definition: the growth, the dispersal ability and the tolerance to environmental conditions fit into widespread and harm to other populations and threat to human health fit into disruptive.&nbsp;
2) In order to choose the invasive species that I would study, I accessed the ISSG database and observed the 100 worst invasive species in South America. I studied the first invasive species and determined the ones that fit into my categories. However, during this process I made a mistake. I did not realize that they were in alphabetical order not from worst to least worst as I had thought. Because of that, my results were not precise. On the other hand, I was able to find species that fit into most of my categories, so my results were not entirely compromised.&nbsp;
3) In order to eliminate the first three species from my list, I studied the five and determined the three that fit into the least amount of categories: one of them, the&nbsp;Anopheles quadrimaculatus, only fit into two, so determining that that was the least worst of the five was easy. Then,&nbsp;Aedes albopictus&nbsp;only fit into three of my categories so I determined that it was the second least worst. Finally, to determine the species that would get third place I had a problem. Of the five that I had selected, the three that I had left all fit into only four of the categories. Because of that, I had to rank my categories, determining which I thought was worst and seeing which ones met them. With that, I determined that&nbsp;Acridotheres tristis&nbsp;deserved third place because it did not grow fast.&nbsp;
4) Lastly, to determine which invasive species I should take to the class debate, I followed the same step I used to determine which one should get third place: which ones have the categories that I believe make them be worst than the other. With that, I decided that&nbsp;Anoplolepis gracilipes&nbsp;won over&nbsp;Acacia Mearnsii. The first one, fit into all of the five except for tolerance to a wide range of environmental conditions. The second one fit into all five except for threat to human health. I determined that being a threat to human health made the Anoplolepis gracilipes be a worst invasive species that the Acacia Mearnsii.&nbsp;