Food and Hunger

In today's blog I will be going over the effects of invasive species on Food and Hunger.  Invasive species are not the greatest threat to the food security of humans near the great lakes as most people who live near the great lakes do not rely on fish or food directly from the lakes as a primary food source.  The real threat to humans is not to food, but to commercial fishing.  The invasive species would be a far greater threat if America was a third world nation without the availability of food in the united states.  Fish caught from fresh water are not a major part of the American diet and this is only likely to effect fishers directly.  Fresh water fish are not consumed as often as salt water fish due to high mercury levels so this will not effect the diets of Americans significantly.  (abcnews.go.com)  The real problem is when you look at the greater effects of invasive species. 

Invasive species can wipe out entire ecosystems if left unchecked, and the Great Lakes have their share of invasive species that threaten their stability.  Asian Carp, Sea Lamprey, Zebra Mussels, and a wide range of other invasive species threaten our lakes.  These invasive species consume phytoplankton which is the basis of the aquatic food chain.  Animals like the Asian Carp can consume 10 percent of their body weight a day (livescience.com) and breed at alarming rates. With few if any predators limiting their explosive growth, Asian Carp are a significant threat to the Great Lakes.  Wiping out the base of a food chain can cause a collapse leading to mass extinction, potentially taking out entire ecosystems.  If this happens in the Great Lakes, it would expand outward from the lakes to the terrestrial animals that depend on freshwater for food.  Few terrestrial animals if any rely on the great lakes as a major dietary component, so it is unlikely that many terrestrial animals would go extinct, however it could shift diets of animals and force them to adapt in unpredictable ways.

To conclude this blog, invasive species in the Great Lakes are not likely to effect the human food supply significantly.  Rather, they are a threat to the native species in the Great Lakes, and terrestrial species that rely on food from the Great Lakes.  The threat to humans is an economic threat rather than a threat of starvation.

http://www.livescience.com/8364-asian-carp-fearsome.html

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/mercury-found-fish-streams-country/story?id=8369324