Furry rodent-like nutria and herds of Asian deer may look cute but are among 1,000 invasive species that have disturbed ecosystems, threatened native animals and left governments across Europe with hefty damage bills, scientists said.
In a new paper, scientists estimated that at least 1,000 of Europe’s 10,000 invasive alien species of animals, insects and plants have caused substantial environmental or economic damage.
Montserrat Vila of the Donana Biological Station in Seville, Spain, lead author of the study, said the damage caused by invader species can be as serious as the effects of climate change.
The paper, published on Monday in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, the journal of the Ecological Society of America, lists Europe’s worst natural guests and details the damage they cause — decimating crops, upsetting ocean food chains and worsening human health problems like hay fever.
“I would say that not all alien invasive species are a problem, but some of them are very damaging and have properties which make things difficult for other species — by causing changes to the ecosystem, or by eating them,” Vila said by telephone from Spain.
Invasive species are often introduced by humans, either intentionally — like cultivating plants for horticulture — or accidentally, with parasites carried by other species or marine organisms arriving in ships’ ballast water.
Governments across Europe have acknowledged the problems posed by invasive alien species, including those in the report.
Britain spends at least 150 million euros (US$194 million) per year tackling 30 types of alien weeds and sees an estimated 3.8 billion euros in annual crop losses caused by invasive insects and animals and disease-carrying pathogens, the report said.
Among the most damaging invaders are ruddy ducks, which have rapidly increased in British waters and now threaten the white-headed duck, Europe’s rarest duck, because of interbreeding. A similar invasive pest is the Silka Deer, common to Asia but now found in Scotland, which also threatens the native red deer population through breeding.
Across Europe, 27 million euros have been spent to protect marine birds from new predators and each year problems associated with alien marine algae cost about 8.18 million euros.
In Italy, about 2.8 million euros are spent controlling nutria, or coypu, a South American semi-aquatic rodent sometimes known as the beaver rat, which was introduced to Europe by fur ranchers.
Italy has also spent 1.06 million euros in a failed attempt to control an influx of Asian long-horned beetles, cutting down 2,000 trees in suburbs around Milan.
The paper warned that some invasive plants produce allergenic pollen that could lead to an increase in hay fever among humans.
But Mick Crawley, a professor of plant ecology at Imperial College in London, said while Vila’s conclusions merit further study, the view that all alien species are harmful is not true.
“There is a kind of racism involved that all alien species are harmful,” he said. “I certainly don’t think that alien species in general have measured negative economic impact.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS