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Management of Water Quality and Biodiversity of the River Ganga
Published in E. R. N. Gunawardena, Brij Gopal, Hemesiri Kotagama, Ecosystems and Integrated Water Resources Management in South Asia, 2020
Introduced species occasionally replace native species in natural habitats through competition or because the altered environments provide the introduced species an ecological advantage. Thai Mangur (Clarias gariepinus), Chinese Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio) are some of the introduced species in the Ganga river system. Details of impact on the native fish fauna are not well understood. Exotic invertebrates such as Physa (Haitia) mexicana, a north American snail, have also been reported from the Ganga and Yamuna (Sinha et al. 2003). Among plants, water hyacinth has spread throughout the basin within a century of its introduction, and has greatly affected both lotic and lentic water bodies.
An introduction to the world ocean
Published in Mark Zacharias, Jeff Ardron, Marine Policy, 2019
The ballast water of ships appears to be the main mode of travel (vector) for introduced species, and impacts are generally observed mainly in coastal waters and estuaries. Once established, introduced species can have a number of detrimental impacts on their new environments including out-competing native species for food and habitat, introducing new pathogens, hybridizing with native species or disruption of entire food webs. Some introduced species, such as the Japanese oyster (Crassostrea gigas), have been intentionally introduced throughout the world for commercial aquaculture purposes and, although they displace native species, are generally regarded as a net benefit. Others, such as the American comb jellyfish (Mnemiopsis leidyi), have had disastrous consequences. The jellyfish arrived in the Black Sea in 1982 in the ballast water of ships and – without predators or competitors – quickly consumed most of the available zoo-plankton, leading to the collapse of fisheries and significant economic impacts. By the 1990s, the comb jellyfish accounted for 90 per cent of the biomass in the Black Sea.
The Biosphere
Published in John C. Ayers, Sustainability, 2017
Invasive or introduced species that are not native to a specific region often spread rapidly, causing environmental destruction and the displacement and extinction of other species. Invasive species are the primary cause for roughly 42% of species being listed as threatened or endangered in the United States (Pimentel, Zuniga, and Morrison 2005). They can disrupt ecosystem structure and function, reducing the resilience of ecosystems and their ability to provide ecosystem services and potentially causing them to pass thresholds into new regimes. In some cases, humans have deliberately introduced species to new environments. Rabbits in Australia is a well-known example of a deliberate species introduction that went awry. First brought to the continent in 1788 as a food source, rabbits have proliferated and become a serious blight to farmers, causing millions of dollars of crop loss each year. Examples of environmentally destructive invasive species include feral pigs, avian malaria, and the water hyacinth (Lowe et al. 2000). The number of invasive species in Europe now exceeds 11,000 (PyŠek and Richardson 2012), and in the United States 50,000 (Pimentel, Zuniga, and Morrison 2005), and rising levels of global travel and trade will lead to increasing rates of introduction of invasive species. In general, once an invasive species takes hold in an ecosystem it becomes almost impossible to eradicate (Smil 2002). Annual economic losses from invasive species in the United States are ~$120 billion (Pimentel, Zuniga, and Morrison 2005).
The association between outdoor allergens – pollen, fungal spore season and high asthma admission days in children and adolescents
Published in International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 2022
Mehak Batra, Don Vicendese, Edward Newbigin, Katrina a Lambert, Mimi Tang, Michael J Abramson, Shyamali C Dharmage, Bircan Erbas
Melbourne has very high levels of grass pollen. A Burkard volumetric trap was used to monitor the atmosphere of Melbourne for pollen grains. Flowering plants and conifers, about twenty-two families, were identified in the pollen counts with 62% of these pollen grains belonging to trees, 20% to grasses and 9% to herbs and weedy plants. Grasses such as Ulmus and Cupressus had the most significant contribution to the pollen calendar. The pollen-producing period of these plants spanned from the end of June to the end of February, accounting for 67% of the year. Introduced species such as perennial and annual rye grasses and canary grasses were the major contributors to grass pollen. These grasses are grown extensively as pasture grasses and the ryegrasses occur as weeds in wheat crops in Victoria (Ong et al. 1995a). In Melbourne, exposure to grass pollen, notably that of the pasture grass perennial ryegrass, is the main cause of asthma from October to December (Haberle et al. 2014).
Non-native fishes in the Indian Himalaya: an emerging concern for freshwater scientists
Published in International Journal of River Basin Management, 2019
Twenty-three respondents (49%) mentioned that there was an increase in occurrence of introduced species (trout species and common carp) during fishing in the last 5 years. Nineteen individuals (40%) stated that both the palatable and market value of introduced species was comparatively lower than native fish and hence had impacted the value of local fisheries. There was an urgent demand among respondents (n = 39; 83%) for legislative control of introduced species, as there was a fear that they could negatively affect socio-economically important fish species such as native mahseer (Tor spp.). The authors would like to point out that given the landscape and the size of the geographic range, there are numerable communities to survey. However, the small sample size is because a large-scale social science survey was not conducted for this Commentary, something the authors intend to do for the next full-length paper.
Climate change adaptation through an integrative lens in Aotearoa New Zealand
Published in Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2023
Judy Lawrence, Anita Wreford, Paula Blackett, David Hall, Alistair Woodward, Shaun Awatere, Mary E. Livingston, Cate Macinnis-Ng, Susan Walker, Joanna Fountain, Mark John Costello, Anne-Gaelle E. Ausseil, Michael S. Watt, Sam M. Dean, Nicholas A. Cradock-Henry, Christian Zammit, Taciano L. Milfont
The choice of where and how we adapt must be informed by an understanding of environmental, cultural, societal and economic factors that are unique to Aotearoa New Zealand. We have a high proportion of endemic species that are already experiencing other stressors, for example the spread of introduced species. The country’s cultural context is shaped by the Tiriti o Waitangi, with Māori relationships with the environment defined through the ethic of kaitiakitanga or intergenerational care for species and ecosystems (Awatere et al. 2021). There is an economic dependency on the natural environment through primary production and tourism.