Transcript Invasive Plants and Animals of Florida

Invasive Plants and
Animals of Florida
Monitor Lizard
• Aggressive and powerful, the Monitor Lizard is
native to the Southeast – primarily Florida.
They are herbivores and consume large
amounts of native vegetation and working
farm products
Asian Longhorned Beetle
• The Asian Longhorned Beetle is considered
one of the most destructive invasive pests in
the United States. Once established, it is
capable of destroying 30 percent of all urban
trees.
Shipping
• Foreign Shipping is one route invasive species
arrive in the U.S. Poor shipping practices can
bring in invasives within pallets, crates, and
even within the cargo ship ballast water.
Giant Tiger Prawn
• The Giant Tiger Prawn, which can grow to be
one foot long, has an unstoppable appetite for
crabs and mollusks. Also, they reproduce at
three times the rate of native shrimp further
depleting food resources.
Burmese Python
• The Burmese Python, one of the world’s
largest snakes, is an invasive species that
thrives in Florida’s Everglades, it poses a
threat to many of the native species.
Wild Pig
• The wild pig is an old world species – not
native to the United States. As it roams and
feeds, its only threat to our environment is to
our environment due to the native and
endangered plants and animals it eats.
Lionfish
• A popular aquarium species, the Lionfish has
been found in non-native waters like the
Bahamas. With no known predators and a
huge appetite, they are capable of wiping out
90 percent of a reef.
Emerald Ash Borer
• The larvae of the Emerald Ash Borer drill holls
into the bark of ash trees. This disrupts the
flow of nutrients that rise up from the roots to
the tree crown, resulting in tree death within
a couple of years
Nonnative Freshwater Fish
• More than 500 fish and wildlife nonnative
species, also known as exotic species, have
been observed in Florida
• There are 23 species of fish that have
regionally establish populations that are found
in several counties in Florida
• Two permanent populations found within a
single county
Nonnative Freshwater Fish
• 9 species that reproduce but have not formed
stable populations
• 7 species that have not been observed to
reproduce
• 14 species that have either died out or have
been eliminated
How did they get there?
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Unknown
Aquarium release
Aquaculture escape
Escape from Florida state facility
Moved about by commercial fishermen
Released by Florida to control other nonnative
fishes
• Expansion from Alabama of introduced range
How did they get there?
• Released by the Department of Medicine,
University of Miami
• Triploid (sterile) individuals stocked to control
aquatic plants
Definitions
• An exotic plant is a plant that has been
introduced to an area from outside its native
range, either purposefully or accidentally
• A naturalized exotic plant is one that can sustain
itself outside of cultivation, outside its native
range. It is still exotic; it has not become native
• An invasive exotic plant is a naturalized exotic
plant that is expanding its range into natural
areas and disrupting naturally occurring native
plant communities
• A native plant is one whose natural range
included Florida at the time of Columbus’s
“discovery” of America
What is so bad about invasives?
• When plants are introduced to a new location
without the factors like weather, diseases, or
insect pests that kept them under control in their
native range, they can just keep growing and
reproducing, out-competing and displacing the
native plants
• This disrupts naturally-balanced native plant
communities, resulting in reduction in
biodiversity which adversely affects wildlife and
alters natural processes such as fire frequency or
intensity and water flow
Exotic plant
species in Florida
• According to the University of South Florida,
almost one-third of the plants growing wild in
Florida are non-native and some of these have
become serious problems
• They spread by wind (spores blown about), by
water (Melaleuca trees in the Everglades) or by
birds or other wildlife that eat the fruit and
deposit the seeds in droppings far from the
original plant.
• Others spread from expanding underground root
systems.
• Terrestrial Invasive Plant
Species
Air Potato
Asparagus Fern
Brazilian
Pepper Tree
Caesar’s Weed
Camphor Tree
Cogon Grass
Coral Ardesia
Kudzu
Lantana
Rosary Pea
Tropical Soda Apple
Elephant Ear
Aquatic Invasive Plant Species
• Highly invasive plants were reported in 94% of
the public waters of Florida that were
inventoried during 2012
• This impacted more than 112,000 acres
Invasive aquatic plants have:
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Rapid growth
Sexual and asexual reproduction
Wide dispersal and survival
Broad environmental tolerance
Resistance to management
Problems caused by
invasive plants include:
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Loss of recreation
Severe oxygen depletion
Stunted fish populations and fish kills
Water-flow restrictions, flooding
Navigation restrictions
Accelerated sedimentation
Habitat destruction
Reduction in biodiversity
Reduction in property values
Torpedo Grass
Wild Taro
Giant Salvina
Hydrilla
Para Grass
Hygrophila
Water Lettuce
Napier Grass
Water Spinach