2018 has arrived, and with it comes the closing of our exhibit, ‘Power of Flight: Visions of Birds in Inuit Art.’ For National Bird Day, I thought I’d share some of my favorite pieces from the exhibit!
Stay tuned for ‘Enduring Connections: Contemporary Alaskan Yup'ik and Iñupiat Art,’ the exhibit that will take its place in March.
God I’m so excited for the new season of uncover (the cat lady case) the new reporter sounds like he’s on the verge of tears every time he speaks and I really like that in a podcaster
Ok but can we talk about non-native and invasive species in a nuanced way?
There’s more to this topic than ‘native = good’ and ‘non-native = invasive and therefore bad’. I also see horrible analogies with human immigration, which…no. Just no.
Let’s sit back and learn about species and how they work inside and outside their native ranges! Presented by: someone who studied ecology.
Broadly speaking, when talking about species in an ecosystem, we can divide them into four categories: native non-invasive, non-native,
non-native invasive, and native invasive.
Because ‘native’ and ‘invasive’ are two different things.
Native and non-native refers to the natural range of a species: where it is found without human intervention. Is it there on its own, or did it arrive in a place because of human activity?
Non-invasive and invasive refers to how it interacts with its ecosystem. A non-invasive species slots in nicely. It has its niche, it is able to survive and thrive, and its presence does not threaten the ecosystem as a whole. An invasive species, on the other hand, survives, thrives, and threatens the balance of an ecosystem.
Let’s have some examples! (mostly featuring North America, because that’s the region I’m most familiar with)
Native Non-invasive
Native bees! Bee species (may be social or solitary) that pollinate plants.
And stopping here bc I think we get the point.
Non-native
Common Dandelion: Introduced from Europe. Considered an agricultural weed, but does no harm to the North American ecosystem. Used as a food source by many insects and animals. Is prolific, but does not force other species out.
European Honeybee: Introduced from Eurasia. Massively important insect for agricultural pollination. Can compete with native pollinators but does not usually out compete them.
Non-native Invasive
Emerald Ash Borer: Beetle introduced from Asia. In places where it is non-native, it is incredibly destructive to ash trees (in its native range, predators and resistant trees keep it in check). It threatens North America’s entire ash population.
Hydrilla: An Old World aquatic plant introduced to North America. Aggressively displaces native plant species, and can interfere with fish spawning areas and bird feeding areas.
Native Invasive
White Tailed Deer: Local extinction of the deer’s predators caused a massive population boom. Overgrazing by large deer populations has significantly changed the landscape, preventing forests from maturing and altering the species composition of an area. Regulated hunting keeps deer populations managed.
Sea Urchins: The fur trade nearly wiped out the sea otters that eat them. Without sea otters to keep urchin populations in check, sea urchins overgrazed on kelp forests, leading to the destruction and loss of kelp and habitat. Sea otter conservation has helped control urchin populations, and keeps the kelp forest habitat healthy.
—
There are a few common threads here:
The first is that human activities wind up causing most ecosystem damage. We introduce species. We disrupt food chains. We try to force human moral values onto ecosystems and species. And when we make a mistake, it’s up to us to mitigate or reverse the damage.
The second is that human moral values really cannot be applied to ecosystems. There are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ species. Every species has its place. Applying emotional and moral rhetoric to ecology works against our understanding of how our ecosystems work.
Third: the topic of invasive and non-native species is more complex than most of the dialogue surrounding it. Let’s elevate our discussions.
Fourth: If you ever compare immigrants or minorities to invasive species, I will end you.
There are more nuances to this topic than I presented as well! This is not meant to be a deep dive, but a primer.
THANK YOU
I’ve been thinking of making a post like this because people using “invasive” and “non native” interchangeably drives me up the wall, but you did it so much better!
I remember one of my ecology professors saying that only something like 1 in 10 nonnative species introduced to a new habitat will be able to establish there, and only 1 in 10 of those will be damaging to the ecosystem. The majority of nonnative species aren’t invasive, we just hear a lot about the really bad ones.
God i hate going on facebook so within ten seconds and im faced with issues like: should i donate to this persons birthday fundraiser? I don’t remember who they are or how i know them but it’s a good cause but will they thibk its weird or self serving if i donate? my moms stepsister sent me a friend request should i accept it? I haven’t seen or heard from her since i was 9 and idk if she’s homophobic or if she’ll tell her dad, my only surviving grandparent, whom I’m already fb friends with but I don’t think is tech savvy enough look at my profile and see that I’m dating another woman? Except maybe he does bc when i saw him a few months ago he kept asking if i was seeing someone and probably could tell i was lying? And how no one else in my family who was there for that scene said anything to me about it after laughing about how awkward it was? Like not considering how painful it was to lie just out of uncertainty and not wanting to take away from the visits purpose which was to introduce him to my brothers fiancee? Or perhaps just unable to articulate their sympathy? Or how my old roommate from California is apparently moving to my area but I didn’t really like her so idk if I should reach out to her or not? Which in turn reminds me of my roommates from Boston who I really really liked but I’m pretty sure hate me bc i took off in the middle of the lease to move to California for Love and left a ton of my shit behind and I’m gonna be back in Boston for the first time since then and I really want to visit them but again suspect that they’re not interested?
anyways i exited the app thank u all for being mostly strangers who ignore my posts
me: [typing post that says ‘i just remembered i never beat off’]
me, internal: watch out!you say ‘beat off’ here to mean completing a playthrough of ‘off’, the 2008 rpg video game by mortis ghost. however, the phrase ‘beat off’ is also euphemism for masturbation! without context, it would appear you were talking about masturbating!
Alright, y'all. Bug nerd here. Yes, this is real. This is Charidotella sexpunctata. It’s able change color like this by filling and emptying its elytra (the wing covers) with water. The mirror-like gold effect is caused by it forcing water into separate layers of its elytra, smoothing them out to the point where they actually reflect light. By drawing the water out, the red pigment beneath is exposed. They do this whenever they’re disturbed as a defense mechanism, likely to mimic foul tasting lady beetles.
