[APWG] ARTICLES: A few more invasive related articles

[Olivia Kwong]

A few other invasive related articles are below, check the link for the
full text.

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http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/editorial/12069067.htm

Editorial Posted on Thu, Jul. 07, 2005

Invading aliens are already among us
By Alan Burdick
As the warmongering aliens of "War of the Worlds" infest your local movie
theater, keep your eye on the other alien species on the screen, the one
those dastardly aliens have brought along in their space pods: the
creeping, crimson "red weed."

In the original book, H.G. Wells envisioned the weed as a sort of kudzu on
steroids — leafy, not unlovely and wildly flourishing. Steven Spielberg's
version is more neon and goop. Either way, the red weed embodies an
apparently cosmic truism about ecological invasion: rats — even
extraterrestrial ones — carry fleas.

Increasingly, as we humans move around the world, we are those rats,
carrying plants and animals with us and releasing them to new habitats
where they can crowd out native and endangered species and become costly
nuisances. The zebra mussel, introduced to North America from Europe in
the 1980s from ships' ballast water, has altered aquatic ecosystems and
become an expensive scourge to industrial intake pipes in the Great Lakes
and Mississippi River regions. Gorse, a Mediterranean shrub, is a
hard-to-control weed in the Pacific Northwest and New Zealand.

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0804/p17s01-sten.html

from the August 04, 2005 edition

An alien invader spawns a species
By Robert C. Cowen
When loosestrife covers a wetland with purple flowers, it flaunts the
invasive power of alien plants. While scientists have barely begun to
understand the full ecological impact of alien plant invasions, the global
mixing of plants and animals now going on could be a major channel for
unplanned environmental change.

The ecological alterations that an aggressive alien may bring vary. It can
co-opt soil microbes to enhance its growth. It can deny native animals
their natural food and shelter. It can create a new wildfire hazard as
alien grasses are doing in some North American deserts. New research shows
it can even help a new insect species to emerge.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051114/sc_afp/apecsummithealth

APEC battles killer bees, snakehead fish
Mon Nov 14, 2:41 PM ET
BUSAN, South Korea (AFP) - Asia-Pacific nations are drawing up battle
plans to combat the spread of rare plants or animals such as killer bees
and Vietnamese snakehead fish, officials said.

So-called "invasive alien species" -- animals, plants or micro-organisms
which are brought into countries where they are not normally found -- have
the potential to cause significant environmnental and economic damage.

Bacterial and viral diseases, marine life such as molluscs and killer bees
are all examples of agents that can be both economically damaging and
difficult to eradicate, said US department of commerce official Brenda
Fisher.