Life Sciences The forest-destroying invasive species you've never heard of

[das_nut]

I never knew this, but it seems that earthworms are an invasive species in many parts of North America. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_America ).

While beneficial to farms, their habit of decomposing leaf litter in forests causes a decline in diversity, and opens the way for other invasive species to take root.

 

[Pickle Juice]

Whether a species is considered invasive is completely a matter of arbitrary human fancy.

 

[FortyTwo]

I've heard of earthworms.

 

[das_nut]

I heard of them as well. I didn't realize that most species aren't native to North America, nor that they destroy forest ecologies.

Earthworms are pretty dang powerful.

 

[FortyTwo]

That is a pretty interesting fact. They never occurred to me as being from anywhere else. They're all over the place.

 

[das_nut]

I have some huge ones in the garden. Thought I was doing pretty good for the soil until I learned that earthworms aren't even native to my state!

 

[kazyeeqen]

I have some huge ones in the garden. Thought I was doing pretty good for the soil until I learned that earthworms aren't even native to my state!

Still good to have in your garden. Whatever native worms were there if there were any probably wouldn't be suited for yard-living. The other great earth-mover is the ant, and I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want ants in the garden.

We had a native prairie worm that's now possibly endangered (if anyone cared about worms, or could even find them to figure out if they are endangered, that is) in my area, but they are only suited for the prairie that was, and it's gone forever now...

 

[Pickle Juice]

I like what Paul Watson has to say about worms. That they are more important than people. Not just because it outrages people when they hear it. That's a bonus. But because it is true. He says that the world can survive perfectly well without people, but not without worms. There are countless "humble" life forms without which the biosphere wouldn't even have developed in the first place. People need to remember that.

 

[K-II]

Probably in part because 'worms' is a spectacularly broad collection of creatures. 'People' is pretty limited by comparison.