Invasive species and Climate

In this blog we will look at how climate relates to invasive species.  The success of a species relies on its ability to adapt to its environment, and its climate.  While species may face predators and competition, the largest threat to the success or failure of a species is that which nature throws at it.  Whenever you see a climate shift, for instance an ice age, or a warming period, you will always see an increase in extinction rates as species that are not well adapted die off.  Invasive species have several advantages over native species in terms of predators.  But would this be enough to help them escape the fact that they themselves are in an alien environment that they did not evolve in?  This is a question we can only speculate on, however, if we look at invasive species adaption to their new environments we can get clues.  The Asian carp for example is slowly working its way towards the Great Lakes.  The Great Lakes are a chain of cold freshwater lakes connected making a huge diverse community.  The Asian carp come from similar cold freshwater origins, so they are already well adapted to the cold climate.  They may not be specifically evolved to deal with the climate here, but they come from a similar place.  As such they stand a good chance of surviving here.  With a lack of predators and evolution in a similar climate, the Asian carp, if they arrive seem to be set up to survive and become a new permanent resident of the great lakes community.

Sources:

http://www.glfc.org/fishmgmt/carp.php

http://www.endangeredspeciesinternational.org/overview.html