(NOTE: ALL ATTACHMENTS HAVE BEEN MOVED TO http://sites.google.com/site/conservationinmekong02/weekly-literature)
Assignments:
1. Define the terms "species," "endemism," and "invasive." Each definition should be provided with clear citations.
Species
[ln] The basis of Mayr's (1940 and later) formulations of the biological species definition: "groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups".
In terms of the phylogenetic species concept, "it is commonly taken to define a species as a group of organisms that share at least one uniquely derived character, perhaps with a share pattern of ancestry and descent or monophyly" (Ereshefsky,1992,p.372-373).
Ereshefsky,M. 1992. The units of Evolution: Essays on the Nature of Species. MIT Press. (pp. 372-373).
Agapow, P. M., Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P., Crandall, K. A., Gittleman, J. L., Mace, G. M., Marshall, J. C., & Purvis, A. 2004. The impact of species concept on biodiversity studies. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 79(2): 161-177. [ln]
[tli]
In addition to the above:
Species: A species is a group of populations whose evolutionary pathway is distinct and independent from that of other groups; a distinct and independent path is achieved by the group's reproductive isolation from other groups. (Futuyma & Mayer, 1980)
Genotypic Cluster: Species are recognized by morphological and genetic gaps between populations in a local area rather than by means of the phylogeny (evolutionary history), cohesion, or reproductive isolation that are responsible for these gaps. These gaps may be entirely vacant, or they may contain low frequencies of intermediate genotypes, or hybrids (Mallet 1995).
Futuyma, Douglas J., and Gregory C. Mayer. 1980. Non-Allopatric Speciation in Animals. Systematic Zoology 29 (3): 254-271.
Mallet, James. 1995. A Species Definition for a Modern Synthesis. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 10(7): 294-299. [tli]
Endemism
[ss] A journal of Conservation Biogeography from Wiley InterScience, (1) defines the concept of endemism as to quantify the biological uniqueness of an area and species richness. (2) Traditionally defined in the journal, endemism is defined to include species with ranges restricted to a particular region and only that region. As the area threshold changes, scaling of endemism also changes, producing a different picture of endemism for each spatial scale. Moreover, the areal definition assumes equal levels of heterogeneity in different landscapes (clearly a simplification), which overemphasizes fine-grained regions.
Peterson, A. Townsend. Watson, David M. 2003. Problems with areal definitions of endemism: the effects of spatial scaling. Wiley InterScience. Vol. 4:4 pages 189-194.
According to Merriam Websters online dictionary, endemism is simply defined 1: belonging or native to a particular people or country b: characteristic of or prevalent in a particular field, area, or environment. 2: restricted or peculiar to a locality or region [ss]
[arb] Endemic is easy to define, as it has been above, what is often more difficult is interpreting the biogeographic reasons explaining an incidence of endemism. One possible reason is that a taxon evolved en situ, filling a local ecolocigal nich, (Schluter 1996) and did not spread beyond its point of origin. The other is that it evolved in a separate region, dispersed, then was extirpated in its point of origin producing a disjunct or endemic population. This has happened in many populations of the former Lorasian populations. (Guo et. al. 1998) This complicates distinguishing centers of origin from centers of diversity, and the origins of endemic populations in many cases. Morron (2001) discussed some of these problems of biogeography, and proposes ways of looking at biogeographical similarities and differences using endemics.
Morron, Juan J. (2001) Homology, biogeography and areas of endemism. Diversity and Distributions. 7: 297–300
Schluter, Dolph. (1996) Ecological Causes of Adaptive Radiation. The American Naturalist, Vol. 148: S40-S64.
Guo, Qinfeng, Ricklefs, Robert E., Cody, Martin L. (1998) Vascular Plant Diversity in Eastern Asia and North America: Historical and Ecological Explanations. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. Vol. 128: 123-136.
Invasive
[fig] An excerpt from A neutral terminology to define invasive species (Colautti, R. I. & MacIsaac, H. J., 2004) explains several definitions for 'invasive': 'Explicit or implicit definitions for ‘invasive’ include: (1) a synonym for ‘nonindigenous’ (e.g. Goodwin et al., 1999; Radford & Cousens, 2000); (2) an adjective for native or nonindigenous species (NIS) that have colonized natural areas (e.g. Burke & Grime, 1996); (3) discrimination of NIS established in cultivated habitats (as ‘noninvasive’) from those established in natural habitats (e.g. Reichard & Hamilton, 1997); (4) NIS that are widespread (e.g. van Clef & Stiles, 2001); or (5) widespread NIS that have adverse effects on the invaded habitat (e.g. Davis & Thompson, 2000; Mack et al., 2000).'
Colautti, R. I., & MacIsaac, H. J. 2004. A Neutral Terminology to Define Invasive Species. Diversity and Distributions. 10(2):135-141. Cited as (Colautti, R. I. & MacIsaac, H. J., 2004). [fig]
[mr] According to Richardson and his colleagues,
"Introduction means that the plant (or its propagule) has been transported by humans across a major geographical barrier. Naturalization starts when abiotic and biotic barriers to survival are surmounted and various barriers to regular reproduction are overcome. invasion further requires that introduced plants produce reproductive offspring in areas distant from sites on introduction... We propose that the term 'invasive' should be used without any inference to environmental or economic impact."
Richardson, et. al. 2000. Naturalization and invasion of alien plants: concepts and definitions. Diversity and Distributions. 6:93-107. [mr]
[NC] According to Kühn, I., Brandenburg, M. & Klotz, S. 2004.
Invasive are "Traits that are likely to be associated with the first phase (transport to new region) are probably those of the dispersal unit (e.g. longevity, adherent capacity). Traits that are likely to be associated with the latter phases are more related to competitive ability and the matching of habitat and climate (Crawley et al., 1996; Pyek, 1998). These variables are related to the ecological niche of a species."
Kühn, I., Brandenburg, M. & Klotz, S. 2004. Why do alien plant species that reproduce in natural habitats occur more frequently? Diversity and Distributions, 10(5-6), 417-425.
[NC]
2. Write a short proposal for your posters. Create a new page for each proposal and be prepared to present in class (Tuesday). You are highly encouraged to work, collaborate, help and etc. with one another BUT each student will produce one poster.
Teresa Ingalls Poster Proposal
Nattha Chuenwattana's Poster Proposal
Fiona Greatbanks's Poster Proposal
John Thompson's Poster Proposal
3. Each student will prepare a table of the major plant and animal species that are invasive in the Mekong region. For each species, include common and scientific names as well as its origin and invasive habitat.
[nb] check Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) for species distributions downloadable in KMZ format or hand coded [nb]
Safia's Invasive species of the Mekong
Lien's Invasive species list of the Mekong region
Teresa's Invasive Species List
4. Each student will find and read an article on invasion biology or invasive species in SE Asia. This should basically be a paper about problems with introduced species in the region. This will be briefly presented in class.
[ss]
Sodhi, Navjot S.; Koha, Lian Pin; Brook, Barry K.; Ng, Peter K.L. 2004. Southeastern Asian biodiversity: an impending disaster. Science Direct. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. Vol9:12 pages 654-660
Nils, O.L.; Bronmark, Christer; Hansson, Lars-Anders. 2004. Invading Herbivory: The Golden Apple Snail Alters Ecosystem Functioning in Asia Wetlands. Ecology Society of America. Vol.85:6, pages 1575-1580.
[ss]
[tli] De Silva, Sena S., Thuy T. T. Nguyen, Nigel W. Abery , Upali S . Amarasinghe. 2006. An evaluation of the role and impacts of alien Asian inland aquaculture. Aquaculture Research 37 (1): 1-17. [tli]
[fig] Drake J. M. & Lodge D. M. 2004. Global Hotspots for Biological Invasions: Evaluating Options for Ballast-water Management. Proceedings of the Royal Society. 271(1539):575-580. [fig]
[arb] Ghazoul, Jaboury (2004) Alien Abduction: Distribution of Native Plant-Polinator Interactions by Invasive Species
. Biotropica. 36 (2): 156-164
secondary article, for the interested: Traveset, Anna, Richardson, David M. (2006) Biological Invasions as Disruptors of Plant Mutualisms
. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 21 (4) 208-216
Since Skype is being annoying today, I just typed a couple of sentences about this article.
In short, it is a study of a protected forest in Thailand w/ 3 zones, the interior is relatively undisturbed, the exterior is badly high-graded. This is a forest management strategy usually promoted as a “selective cut,” a strategy in which you cut the most desirable specimens and leave the rest, the single most destructive strategy possible because it produces strong selective pressure in favor of undesirable individuals. The third region of the park was intermediate. There were 2 invasive spp. (listed on my chart) which came into the disturbed regions. The purpose of the paper was to evaluate whether or not the change in flora had a corresponding change in pollinator visitation. The problem with the paper is that some of the sample sizes are way too small, but worse it is badly pseudo-replicated. The experiment is structured in such a way that the experimental unit is actually the sub-region of the park, the measurements reported should have been called sub-samples. This means that the actual sample size is 3, 2 degrees of freedom, and no actual replication of the variable being tested. This means that the stats are junk. This being said, some of the observations are not invalid and could be used without the stats for a pilot study. The phenomena of plant-animal mutualism disruption via foreign spp. invasion have been reported before, and I included a literature review that covers many regions of the world in the printed tables.
[ln] Charlotte A. M. YAP & Navjot S. SODHI. (2004). Southeast Asian invasive birds: ecology, impact and management. Ornithological Science 3: 57-67. [ln]
[hl] Hofsvang, T., B. Snoan, A. Andersen, H. Heggen & L.N. Anh. 2005. Liriomyza sativae (Diptera: Agromyzidae), an invasive species in South-East Asia: Studies on its biology in northern Vietnam. International Journal of Pest Management 51(1):71-80. [hl]
[NC] Gutierrez, A. T. and J. K. Reaser, 2005. Linkages between Development Assistance and Invasive Alien Species in Freshwater Systems of Southeast Asia. USAID Asia and Near East Bureau, Washington, DC. [NC]
[mr] The Way Forward: Building Capacity to Combat Impacts of Aquatic Invasive Alien Species and Associated Trans-Boundary Pathogens in ASEAN Countries. 2005. Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific. [mr]