Invasive Species & Global Climate Change

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Period 2 Invasive Species & Global Climate Change Though all living things are dependent on their environment to survive, humans are unique. They are the only living things that can significantly manipulate the environment to meet their own needs. For centuries we have believed that most of these changes are harmless. The earth is resilient and can adapt and rebound from almost any amount of “fiddling” that humans might do to it. We are finding out now that this is not always the case. In this paper we will examine the causes and effects of two serious environmental catastrophes, one affecting ecosystems in more localized areas called invasive species, and another affecting the entire planet called Global Climate Change. First thing, invasive species. Invasive species are non-native species that are introduced to a foreign area, in which the introduced species has no natural predators to control their growth. In result the introduced species starts reproducing and slowly begins to take over, becoming a nuisance to the environment; and with nothing preying on the new species the invasive species continues to grow. They’re very harmful to the environment because the invasive species disturbs the equilibrium and many of the other native animals living there. Also local areas get infested by the invasive species and after too long the invasive species gets too abundant that they get harder and harder to get rid of. Then eventually it is nearly impossible to get rid of the invasive species. There are some invasive species that have become a nuisance to the U.S.A. Some include such species as the star thistle; native to Europe, but the star thistle was brought over on hay from Europe. Then since the thistle was non-native it had no natural predators (i.e. no insects, nor animals fed upon the thistle) so the new plant rapidly spread all across America. One other
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