Should we be concerned about invasive species?

Darwin and the theory of natural selection states that those organisms most fit for the environment survive. In the case of invasive species, this seems to be quite true, therefore, making them a cause of great concern for the humans as well as the environment.  Invasive species are introduced with the intention of providing benefit to the particular area. However, most of them end up causing more harm to the native environment than expected.

By the research that we did for determining the worst invasive species, we can say that these species have several advantages over the native species and most of these species have the ability to alter the environment in their favor, thus affecting or completely eliminating the native species. One of the advantages include the lack or less number of natural predators which help them flourish.  The high reproduction and dispersion rates, as well as the high economic damage done add up to the reasons that make the invasive species a cause for concern.

Determining the invasive species criteria:

The five criteria I chose for determining the worst invasive species are:

1.       High present population

2.       Dispersion rate

3.       Reproduction rate

4.       Economic damage

5.       Impact on biodiversity

I chose these because these are important characteristics regarding invasive species as well as these make the classification easier. I tried to find species that satisfy all the above criteria, along with having more information available about them that makes the classification distinct. The last three in my list which were- Bambusa vulgaris, Arundo donax and Sirex noctilio were easier to eliminate after comparing their characteristics regarding the above listed criteria. The other two species left were Eragrostis plana and Acacia longifoli. Both satisfied all the criteria but I chose Acacia longifolia because of its seemingly high and consistent presence over a wide area, as compared to the other.