Balancing Ecosystems: The Importance of Biodiversity

An alien species is a class of organisms that have been introduced to a new habitat or environment where they did not exist before. They have both negative and positive effects on the new environment. The Alien species can destroy the alter environment like the Grass Carp that was introduced in aquaculture facilities in Alabama and Stuttgart where they increased the alkalinity of the water and the dissolved oxygen in the water reduced as they fed on the macrophytes. The alien species can also feed on other organisms in the habitat or their activities in the environment can lead to the death of other species. The Grass Carps fed on the aquatic plants thereby killing the other aquatic organisms that depend on the plants for survival. Alien species have positive effects like destroying other species that may be a threat to human beings like the Grass Carps were able to clear the unwanted plants found in water sources (Falkenmark, 2007). The long-term effects that can be brought about by the inversion of alien species to an environment include changes in the specific community that is under attack by the alien species. The alien can present an opportunity or an adverse effect on the community. The results can change the community for an extended period. The composition of the members of the community will decrease if the alien species is feeding on the original members and the original members of the community will have responded by changing their characteristics to adapt to the new conditions and to survive the attack (Falkenmark, 2007). Organisms in the ecosystem interact in many different ways. Organisms in the same ecosystem compete for food. When there are many organisms but the resources are insufficient, they compete for the resources. We will eliminate the alien species from the competition so that the original species can have sufficient resources in their habitat. The organisms also interact through predation where one species kills the other for food. To ensure that there are balances in the ecosystem and the environment, we will introduce an alien species to feed on the class that is high in number to reduce their population. Through the natural succession process, we will put some invasive species in some areas that are occupied by species that are unwanted so that the invasive species can grow and do away with the unwanted species in the area, and through natural selection, we choose the alien species that are friendly to the environment and leave the invasive species that are toxic to the environment alone so that we can do away with the species causing a threat to the environment (Falkenmark, 2007). 

Reference  

Falkenmark, M. (2007). Good ecosystem governance: Balancing ecosystems and social needs. In  Governance as a trialogue: Government-society-science in transition  (pp. 59-76). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.