Now that we have our pest-proof fence, are we safe or trapped?

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Parks ◽  
Kyle Clifton ◽  
Lauren Best ◽  
Bridget Johnson

PEST-PROOF (exclusion) fences are designed to prevent non-native, predatory and pest species from repopulating an area set aside to protect vulnerable native plant and animal species. Pest-proof fencing provides security from invasive species, but can isolate the native species enclosed within. On one hand, some rare native species exist on the mainland due to the pest-free status achieved through the use of exclusion fences. On the other hand, these reintroduced populations are now isolated a situation where they would not be found naturally (Jamieson et al. 2006). Exclusion fences must be constantly maintained or the sanctuary risks reinvasion. An important question for conservation biologists and managers to answer is therefore — when is exclusion fencing the best option for protecting native species from introduced pests? We have drawn our examples from New Zealand and Australia where progress has been made with regard to the design and utilization of exclusion fences.

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Kirk ◽  
Robyn Kannemeyer ◽  
Alison Greenaway ◽  
Edy MacDonald ◽  
Dean Stronge

Invasive animal species threaten global biodiversity. In New Zealand invasive species threaten iconic native species, and scientists are seeking approval to research new technologies that might be capable of eradicating these invasive species. The aim of this research was to understand what New Zealanders with an interest in pest control consider to be the main risks and benefits of introducing new technologies to manage invasive species. We invited key informants to participate in the focus groups, selecting people with knowledge and experience of pest control issues in New Zealand. Data were collected from seven focus groups held in three locations across New Zealand. A thematic analysis of the data was then conducted in which three key themes emerged: concern about the risk of unintended consequences, the benefits of landscape-scale technologies, and New Zealand being an early adopter of new technologies. The focus groups articulated a variety of benefits from introducing new technologies – such as replacing dangerous poisons with non-toxic alternatives – but it was the risks of the new technologies that dominated the discussions. Given these results, we recommend an education and communication strategy focussed on social learning, in conjunction with a codesigned decision-making process, to help establish social licence for the application of potentially controversial technologies.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0237894
Author(s):  
Amy E. Kendig ◽  
Vida J. Svahnström ◽  
Ashish Adhikari ◽  
Philip F. Harmon ◽  
S. Luke Flory

Infectious diseases and invasive species can be strong drivers of biological systems that may interact to shift plant community composition. For example, disease can modify resource competition between invasive and native species. Invasive species tend to interact with a diversity of native species, and it is unclear how native species differ in response to disease-mediated competition with invasive species. Here, we quantified the biomass responses of three native North American grass species (Dichanthelium clandestinum, Elymus virginicus, and Eragrostis spectabilis) to disease-mediated competition with the non-native invasive grass Microstegium vimineum. The foliar fungal pathogen Bipolaris gigantea has recently emerged in Microstegium populations, causing a leaf spot disease that reduces Microstegium biomass and seed production. In a greenhouse experiment, we examined the effects of B. gigantea inoculation on two components of competitive ability for each native species: growth in the absence of competition and biomass responses to increasing densities of Microstegium. Bipolaris gigantea inoculation affected each of the three native species in unique ways, by increasing (Dichanthelium), decreasing (Elymus), or not changing (Eragrostis) their growth in the absence of competition relative to mock inoculation. Bipolaris gigantea inoculation did not, however, affect Microstegium biomass or mediate the effect of Microstegium density on native plant biomass. Thus, B. gigantea had species-specific effects on native plant competition with Microstegium through species-specific biomass responses to B. gigantea inoculation, but not through modified responses to Microstegium density. Our results suggest that disease may uniquely modify competitive interactions between invasive and native plants for different native plant species.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 245 (4) ◽  
pp. 251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette Grosse-Veldmann ◽  
Barry J Conn ◽  
Maximilian Weigend

Taxon differentiation in Urtica from Australia and New Zealand initially appears to be uncomplicated, with taxa being easy to distinguish. However, a revision of the type material, more recent collections and a comparison of Australian and New Zealand material shows that three of the names are misapplied. Urtica gracilis (as U. dioica subsp. gracilis, North America) has been reported as introduced to New Zealand, but molecular data retrieve the corresponding specimens with the other NZ-species and we argue that they belong to the polygamous Australian species Urtica incisa. A critical revision of the protologues and type collections reveals that the names Urtica incisa, originally described from mainland Australia, and U. incisa var. linearifolia from Tasmania, have been misapplied to New Zealand taxa. Both New Zealand “Urtica linearifolia” and “U. incisa” represent unnamed taxa and are here formally described as Urtica perconfusa and Urtica sykesii, respectively. Urtica perconfusa corresponds to what is erroneously known as U. linearifolia. Urtica sykesii is an overlooked species, erroneously interpreted as U. incisa in New Zealand. It may be differentiated from U. incisa Poir. by its smaller, deltoid leaf lamina with a truncate to subcordate base (versus truncate to cuneate), fewer leaf teeth (9–12 on each side rather than 14–20 in U. incisa) and smaller plant size (20–60 cm rather than 60–200 cm in U. incisa). We found evidence for the presence of true introduced U. dioica subsp. dioica in New Zealand, but not for U. gracilis. Rather, New Zealand specimens assigned to the putatively introduced northern hemisphere U. gracilis belong to U. incisa as described from Australia. Typifications for the species treated here are provided, including an updated key to the Australian and New Zealand taxa. There are thus six native species of Urtica in New Zealand, four of them endemic, and two also indigenous in Australia.


2006 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Grice

Most parts of the Australian rangelands are at risk of invasion by one or more species of non-native plants. The severity of current problems varies greatly across the rangelands with more non-native plant species in more intensively settled regions, in climatic zones that have higher and more reliable rainfall, and in wetter and more fertile parts of rangeland landscapes. Although there is quantitative evidence of impacts on either particular taxonomic groups or specific ecological processes in Australian rangelands, a comprehensive picture of responses of rangeland ecosystems to plant invasions is not available. Research has been focused on invasive species that are perceived to have important effects. This is likely to down play the significance of species that have visually less dramatic influences and ignore the possibility that some species could invade and yet have negligible consequences. It is conceivable that most of the overall impact will come from a relatively small proportion of invasive species. Impacts have most commonly been assessed in terms of plant species richness or the abundance of certain groups of vertebrates to the almost complete exclusion of other faunal groups. All scientific studies of the impacts of invasive species in Australian rangelands have focused on the effects of individual invasive species although in many situations native communities are under threat from a complex of interacting weed species. Invasion by non-native species is generally associated with declines in native plant species richness, but faunal responses are more complex and individual invasions may be associated with increase, decrease and no-change scenarios for different faunal groups. Some invasive species may remain minor components of the vegetation that they invade while others completely dominate one stratum or the vegetation overall.


Author(s):  
Amy Krist ◽  
Mark Dybdahl

Invasive species are one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity. Hence, understanding the role of invasive species is of grave importance to managing and minimizing the impact of biological invasions. To date, the ecological impacts of biological invasions have received significant attention, but little effort has been made to address the evolutionary impact (Sakai et al. 2001, Cox 2004). This is despite the fact that evolutionary impacts are likely to be widespread; invasive species have been shown to alter patterns of natural selection or gene flow within native populations (Parker et al. 1999), and many of the best examples of rapid evolution involve invasive species interacting with native species (Reznick and Ghalambor 2001, Strauss et al. 2006). We have begun to address some of the evolutionary consequences of the invasion of the New Zealand mud snail, (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) on a species of native snail in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA).


Author(s):  
Leeladarshini Sujeeun ◽  
Sean C. Thomas

Many tropical invasive species have allelopathic effects that contribute to their success in native plant communities. Pyrolyzed biomass (“biochar”) can sorb toxic compounds, including allelochemicals produced by invasive plants, potentially reducing their inhibitory effects on native species. Strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum) is among the most important allelopathic invasive species in tropical islands and recognized as the most serious invasive species threat in the global biodiversity hotspot of Mauritius. We investigated the effects of additions of locally produced biochar on native tree species in a field experiment conducted in areas invaded by strawberry guava within Mauritius’ largest national park. Growth and survivorship of native tree species were monitored over 2 ½ years in plots subjected to four treatments: non-weeded, weeded, weeded + 25 t/ha biochar and weeded + 50 t/ha biochar. Native tree growth and survivorship were strongly suppressed by strawberry guava. Biochar treatments dramatically increased native tree performance, with more than a doubling in growth, and substantially increased native tree survivorship and species diversity, while suppressing strawberry guava regeneration, consistent with growth-promoting properties and sorption of allelochemicals. We conclude that biochars, including “sustainable biochars” produced from locally accessible biomass using low-tech pyrolysis systems, have considerable potential to counteract effects of allelopathic invaders and increase the capacity for native species regeneration in tropical island ecosystems.


Author(s):  
Emmanuel Falque
Keyword(s):  

This chapter argues that what counts in philosophy as in theology is the question of essence, and not simply the physiological species, as in biology. That humans are of the animal species tells us in reality nothing about their features, nor their nature and destiny. At most it tells us about an origin that we would certainly be wrong to forget. On the other hand, animality in humankind reminds us of a tie, or link, and necessitates that we give it metaphysical meaning. To do this we have to explore the deepest levels of our Chaos, of our passions and drives—something that certain philosophical approaches, particularly that of phenomenology, have wrongly put on one side, by dint of wanting to signify too much. There is nothing in reality telling us that we must definitively leave this animality behind or get rid of it, precisely because we are constituted by it. But also, nothing stops us from thinking that it is on the basis of this animality that we are given to see and to think our humanity, and that our bodies themselves are, if not the actual proof of this, at least the sign of it.


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4885 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-234
Author(s):  
JOHANA HOFFMANNOVA ◽  
ROBIN KUNDRATA

An annotated catalogue of the genera Hapatesus Candѐze, 1863 and Toorongus Neboiss, 1957 (Coleoptera: Elateridae) is presented. Altogether, 21 species are classified in Hapatesus (of which five in the subgenus Minutesus Neboiss, 1957), and four in Toorongus. The species of Hapatesus are distributed in Australia, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and New Zealand, and there are also dubious reports from Taiwan, India and Uganda. Toorongus, on the other hand, is an endemic of Australia. For each taxon we provide synonyms, information on types, type localities, distribution, and bibliography. The systematic placement and distribution of the above-mentioned genera are briefly discussed. 


2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Pilková

AbstractThis work analyses the changes of ecological conditions in the Báb forest on the basis of a bioindication method. The comparison is made between the phytocenological records from the years 1968-1969 and 2013 where permanent research plots (PRPs) were established in the forest coppi-ce and on clearcuts. In 2013, the amount of photophilous and thermophilic species increased mainly on the clearcut PRP and the amount of suboceanic taxa on PRP in the forest coppice. Moreover, there is also an increase of taxa like nitrogen-rich posts. On the other hand, the share of fresh soils indicators and acidophilous species significantly decreased. The change in the ratio of the econumbers of the observed ecofactors between the records from 1968-1969 and 2013 is caused mainly by a diversified management. It is the formation of clearcuts due to which synanthropic, clearcut and invasive species occupy the free space. The given species are mainly thermophilic, photophilous representatives and representatives of nitrogen-rich soils and they have a significant influence on the change in the percentual ratios of the econumbers of the six observed ecofactors.


Legal Studies ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard McCormark

Reservations of title clauses have enjoyed mixed fortunes in recent times at the hands of the courts in Britain. On the one hand, the House of Lords has upheld the validity and effectiveness of an ‘all-liabilities’ reservation of title clause. On the other hand, claims on the part of a supplier to resale proceeds have been rejected in a string offirst instance decisions. Reservation of title has however been viewed more favourably as a phenomenon in New Zealand. In the leading New Zealand case Len Vidgen Ski and Leisure Ltd u Timam Marine Supplies Ltd. a tracing claim succeeded. Moreover in Coleman u Harvey the New Zealand Court of Appeal gave vent to the view that the title of the supplier is not necessarily lost when mixing of goods, which are the subject matter of a reservation of title clause, has occurred. There are now a series of more recent New Zealand decisions, some of them unreported, dealing with many aspects of reservation of title.


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