Plants and animals that come from overseas sometimes out-compete species that are native to the region. Scientists have long debated what makes the invaders so successful. One hypothesis is that invasive species have fewer natural enemies. New research supports this idea. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has details:
Transcript
Plants and animals that come from overseas sometimes out-compete species that are native to the
region. Scientists have long debated what makes the invaders so successful. One hypothesis is
that invasive species have fewer natural enemies. New research supports this idea. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Rebecca Williams has details:
Invasive animals and plants have fewer parasites and diseases than their native competitors.
That’s according to two new studies published in the journal Nature. In one study, researchers
analyzed parasites of 26 invasive species, including the zebra mussel.
Kevin Lafferty is an author of the study. He says when a foreign species invades a new area, it
leaves most of its parasites behind. He says importing those natural enemies might be a good
way to control invasives.
“There’s still several species, on average, about 13 parasite species back in the introduced
species’ home range, that we could consider for biological control, and of course an important
part of that process is to determine which ones might be safe, in terms of not infecting our native
species.”
A second study looked at nearly 500 plants that have been brought into the U.S. Researchers
found that plants that leave behind the most pathogens are the most likely to become invasive.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Rebecca Williams.