Agribusiness: An Entrepreneurial Approach

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Much as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was a call to action against the pesticides that were devastating bird populations, Charles S. Elton's classic The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants sounded an early warning about an environmental catastrophe that has become all too familiar today—the invasion of nonnative species. From kudzu to zebra mussels to Asian long-horned beetles, nonnative species are colonizing new habitats around the world at an alarming rate thanks to accidental and intentional human intervention. One of the leading causes of extinctions of native animals and plants, invasive species also wreak severe economic havoc, causing $79 billion worth of damage in the United States alone.

Elton explains the devastating effects that invasive species can have on local ecosystems in clear, concise language and with numerous examples. The first book on invasion biology, and still the most cited, Elton's masterpiece provides an accessible, engaging introduction to one of the most important environmental crises of our time.

Charles S. Elton was one of the founders of ecology, who also established and led Oxford University's Bureau of Animal Population. His work has influenced generations of ecologists and zoologists, and his publications remain central to the literature in modern biology.

"History has caught up with Charles Elton's foresight, and The Ecology of Invasions can now be seen as one of the central scientific books of our century."—David Quammen, from the Foreword to Killer Algae: The True Tale of a Biological Invasion

Customer Reviews:

A classic.......2007-02-25

This is the classic text for invasion biology and a good read. A lot of what Eltion writes still applies today and he presents a lot of the basic issues that tend to be reidscovered by others.

A classic on biological invasions.......2006-12-10

This is a classic work (originally published in 1958) by the British scientist, Charles Elton. It is a must read for those who are interested in the field of bioinvasions, even if modern researchers do not agree with every point Elton made.

Elton gives examples of species that have been transported from one part of the world to another, sometimes becoming established pests. He shows how biogeographic areas may start to blend in, if not be lost, if biological invasions occur continuously.

Another issue Elton looks at is the use of pesticides and the resulting resistant strains of the pests the chemicals were meant to eliminate or control.

In the end, Elton calls for conservation - a co-existance between humankind and nature, and ecological variety.

Island Colonization: The Origin and Development of Island Communities (Ecological Reviews)

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Island Colonization: The Origin and Development of Island Communities (Ecological Reviews)
Ian Thornton
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521854849

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New or recently sterilized islands (for example through volcanic activity), provide ecologists with natural experiments in which to study colonization, development and establishment of new biological communities. Studies carried out on islands like this have provided answers to fundamental questions as to what general principles are involved in the ecology of communities and what processes underlie and maintain the basic structure of ecosystems. These studies are vital for conservation biology, especially when evolutionary processes need to be maintained in systems in order to maintain biodiversity. The major themes are how animal and plant communities establish, particularly on 'new land' or following extirpations by volcanic activity. This book comprises a broad review of island colonization, bringing together succession models and general principles, case studies with which Professor Ian Thornton was intimately involved, and a synthesis of ideas, concluding with a look to the future for similar studies.

Aliens from Earth: When Animals and Plants Invade Other Ecosystems

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Aliens from Earth: When Animals and Plants Invade Other Ecosystems
Mary Batten
Manufacturer: Peachtree Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 156145236X

Book Description

A real-life, scientific detective story with serious worldwide environmental consequences is clearly articulated for young readers ALIENS ARE ON THE MOVE! They spread out underwater, smothering sea plants and destroying fish eggs in the Mediterranean Sea. They multiply and invade wooded areas in Australia and Hawaii, killing off the native flora and fauna. They travel by air, water, boat…even on the shoes and clothes of humans! Award-winning science writer Mary Batten introduces young readers to the serious and ongoing environmental problems caused by invasive plant and animal species. Citing numerous examples, including the accidental release of the gypsy moth into the United States in 1869 and the deliberate introduction of rabbits to Australia by English settlers, Batten shows how in each case the delicate balance of the local ecosystem is threatened or even destroyed by the foreign intrusion. At the end of the book, Batten offers readers a glossary and a list of ideas they can use to minimize their own impact on local environments. Artist Beverly Doyle's realistic, full-color illustrations and maps highlight the diversity of the natural world and outline the global routes taken by animal and plant invaders.

Aliens In The Backyard: Plant And Animal Imports Into America

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Things they Never Tell You About American History
A dizzying, entertaining compendium of facts and myths and stories
How alien species have changed America

Aliens In The Backyard: Plant And Animal Imports Into America
John Leland
Manufacturer: University of South Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1570035822

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Aliens live among us. Thousands of species of nonnative flora and fauna have taken up residence within U.S. borders. Our lawns sprout African grasses, our roadsides flower with European weeds, and our homes harbor Asian, European, and African pests. Misguided enthusiasts deliberately introduced carp, kudzu, and starlings. And the American cowboy spread such alien life forms as cows, horses, tumbleweed, and anthrax, supplanting and supplementing the often unexpected ways "Native" Americans influenced the environment. Aliens in the Backyard: Plant and Animal Imports into America recounts the origins and impacts of these and other nonindigenous species on our environment and pays overdue tribute to the resolve of nature to survive in the face of challenge and change.

In considering the new home that imported species have made for themselves on the continent, John Leland departs from those environmentalists who universally decry the invasion of outsiders. Instead, Leland finds that uncovering stories of aliens' arrivals and assimilation is a more intriguing—and ultimately more beneficial—endeavor. While he does lament such storied ravagers as the chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, and gypsy moth, Leland also posits that the majority of nonnative plants and animals, much like their human counterparts, go about the business of existence and reproduction without threat to the world around them.

Mixing natural history with engaging anecdotes, Leland cuts through patriotic and problematic myths coloring our grasp of the natural world and suggests that the stories of how these alien species have reshaped our landscape are as much a part of the continent's heritage as tales of our presidents and politics. Simultaneously, he poses questions about which, if any, of our accepted icons is truly American (not apple pie or Kentucky bluegrass; not Idaho potatoes or Boston ivy). Written with a genuine appreciation for nature's resiliency, Leland's ode to survival reveals how plant and animal immigrants have made the country as much an environmental melting pot as its famed melding of human cultures, and he invites us to reconsider what it means to be American.

Customer Reviews:

Things they Never Tell You About American History.......2007-01-23

For a short time I worked at a Florida lab helping to compile the USDA list of introduced arthropods. It was then I learned about a lot of obscure creature that had invaded the US in ballast, on plants, in clothing, and on wood, rock, sand, and just about any commodity or personal effect. The invasion has not stopped, but it is often not even known to be going on by the general public, except in some high profile invasions such as the Asian tiger mosquito!

John Leland, in his "Aliens in the Backyard: Plant and Animal Imports into America" presents us with many (but certainly not all) of these imported organisms, from starlings to Russian thistle and from dogs (first brought in by Native Americans) to anthrax. Some of these introductions changed history as they destroyed or interfered with crops, or were of medical importance. Smallpox, unknown in America, was used to kill Native Americans long before anyone heard of a virus by transferring contaminated blankets to the intended victims. Both diseases and destroyers of crops had their effects on armies and the outcomes of wars, as well as the physical and economic health of the hemisphere.

Despite a few irritating typos, I found the book to be basically accurate and I learned a few things as well, such as the fact that all species of human lice were already present in the New World when Columbus landed. Typhus may have been here as well.

This is one of those eye-opening books that should be read by everyone, especially if you are concerned with security. We don't need terrorists (although they can help things along) to cause major impacts on society. Nature and our own mobility can do it as efficiently or even better! We should also keep in mind that we, who evolved on the plains of Africa, are aliens to the New World as well! Indeed, John Leland drives this point home several times in this book!

A dizzying, entertaining compendium of facts and myths and stories.......2005-10-11

We've all heard tales of the dreaded zebra mussel, rampant purple loosestrife, or prolific European starling, but if you think exotic species are the exception, even a quick browse of Leland's entertaining compendium of aliens will set you straight. You can't step into your backyard without treading on interlopers, like the favored Kentucky bluegrass.

From the hallucinogenic properties of hemp, morning glory, datura and more; to attempts to cultivate the silkworm; to rats, cockroaches and disease, Leland's essays offer an entertaining history of facts, rumors and squabbles on an exhaustive number of alien species. Whether purposely (often to rid the place of some other unwanted interloper) or accidentally introduced, aliens have long thrived in their new home and many have come to be considered natives.

A professor of English at the Virginia Military Institute, Leland ("Porcher's Creek: Lives Between the Tides") writes with wit and a certain wicked relish, and his research is dizzyingly thorough. But the sheer width and breadth of information is overwhelming. This is a book to keep, to dip into again and again a chapter or even a few pages at a time, so as to have some hope of retention.

With chapter titles like "Out of Africa," "Cowboys: And Their Alien Habits," "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time," and "Bioterror: Older than You Think," Leland makes an appreciative and entertaining case for the melting pot.

How alien species have changed America.......2005-09-08

John Leland (Professor of English at the Virginia Military Institute) does a great job of pointing out which plants and animals are, and which plants and animals are not, native to America. He writes well with style, grace and wit, and he gives a lot of interesting information about how various animals and plants came to be incorporated into the America landscape and enterprise.

From apples to kudzu he details which aliens have been a boon and which have been a sorry bust. In the case of kudzu (Pueraria lobata, which I saw for the first time in a Louisiana swamp a week before hurricane Katrina hit), "It Seemed a Good Idea at the Time" (title of one of his chapters). That was before people realized that kudzu completely blankets "whatever it grows on in a smothering welter of leaves and vines" strangling trees and other vegetation to death. (p. 161)

Also not a good idea was the introduction of carp into America's waters. Leland opines that "Most fishermen and environmentalist regard its widespread introduction...as a disaster...," although there are some, including the Carp Angler Group, who have a different opinion. Similarly, people differ about whether it was a good idea to bring the starling (one of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's works) to America since it is now considered "a dirty, noisy, gregarious, and aggressive" bird that has displaced native species. Perhaps the worst of the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" species is the gypsy moth, brought to America as a possible silk worm. Leland goes into some detail about "well-intentioned dreamers of silken fortunes" in the chapter, "A Sow's Ear from a Silk Purse."

But these deliberately introduced species are relatively benign in the public eye compared to those that have freeloaded their way into our land and have more or less taken over in ways that we cannot control. The German cockroach, the Norway or brown rat, and the tumbleweed (surprisingly not native to the land of the cowboy but from Russia (with love)--oh, you deluded Sons of the Pioneers!) are three that Leland zeroes in on. He also has a few words to say about the American cockroach (probably not American--also called the palmetto bug) and the Oriental cockroach. Here in southern California we have all three, the German, the American and the Oriental. The German is the ever so prolific one that lives indoors in apartment houses and restaurants the world over, while the larger American and Oriental tend to live outdoors. I sometimes find one of the latter in my house dried up and dead in a corner or in a drawer, having wandered in and found nothing to eat and no moisture.

An introduced species that is perhaps an even bigger pest here in the southland is the Argentine ant, which Leland unaccountably does not mention. I recommend he take a study on it. There's enough material there to write a book and then some. Once the Argentine ant (small and black with only an occasional tiny bite) sets up shop inside the walls or under an establishment such as an apartment building or a college dormitory, it is there to stay.

What Leland does so very well in this book, and what makes it superior to some other books I have read, is integrate the alien species into the historical and cultural experience of the American people. In his chapter, "Out of Africa," he details "How Slavery Transformed the American Landscape and Diet." I had to laugh when I read that watermelon is not native to America but comes from Africa, as do peanuts and Bermuda grass, sesame seed and of course the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) also known as the black-eyed pea. I had to laugh because I recalled Randy Newman's satirical song encouraging Africans to come to America in the early days of the republic for "the sweet watermelon and the buckwheat cake"!

Naturally, it is not in any way surprising that many of our foods come from other lands since most of the world's cuisines have found a home in American. Rice is not native, although the so-called "wild rice" is. Wheat comes from the Middle East as most people know, while potatoes are native to the Andes in South American.

In the chapter "Cowboys and Their Alien Habits" Leland recalls the familiar story of how the horse was once native to America but had gone extinct here before Columbian times, and then was accidentally reintroduced by the Spanish explorers after which it revolutionized the Plains Indians' way of life. (p. 92) Also alien are the cowboy's cattle, including the Texas longhorn; and if we go back far enough even the "Indians," the so-called native Americans are not native. Sad to say many of the true natives, like the giant sloth and the cave bear and the great mammoth went extinct coincidental with the arrival of the first humans from across the Bering Strait.

The only problem I have with this book and others like it, is that there is never enough. The way plants and animals have moved around the world and the way they have changed the lives of people is a continual source of fascination. Leland's fine book adds to the reader's pleasure while not sating it.

THE ECOLOGY OF INVASIONS BY ANIMALS AND PLANTS

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THE ECOLOGY OF INVASIONS BY ANIMALS AND PLANTS

Manufacturer: Methuen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HTZVXU

Alien Invasion: America's Battle With Non-Native Animals and Plants

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An excellent book that can instill hope in humanity's future

Alien Invasion: America's Battle With Non-Native Animals and Plants
Robert S. Devine
Manufacturer: Times Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792273729

Book Description

Natural America Under Siege

Exotic species, those plants and animals not native to the environments in which they thrive, represent one of the greatest but least known threats to the environment, not just in the United States, but all over the world. Only a few, like the boll weevil, the zebra mussel, and the infamously invasive kudzu, have penetrated the public consciousness, but hundreds of other exotics are spreading like wildfire across the land. These aliens have already transformed our landscapes, depleted our biological diversity, and cost us billions of dollars. They need to be brought under control.

"We can't afford to keep ignoring or underestimating the invasion," writes Robert Devine as he takes the measure of this extraordinary ecological assault, explaining where alien species come from, how they establish their beachheads and expand, why they seem so much hardier than the indigenous species they displace, and what we can do to neutralize them. A fascinating and informative book that ranges from Hawaii to Florida, Alien Invasion combines state-of-the-art environmental science with vivid personal stories of the impact of exotics, from a firefighter's gripping tale of a fatal cheatgrass blaze to an eerie boat ride through an Everglades grove where all other life has been choked out by a foreign tree.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent book that can instill hope in humanity's future.......1999-08-26

The scope of this book, for reasons of practicality, is limited to the United States but the problem is undoubtedly endemic to the entire planet. Still the coverage is sufficient to recognize the root causes and these are described. Understanding is the only hope. If humanity can not see these "canaries in a coal mine" then we will see great suffering. So far the battle of reason and understanding against the psychosis that seems to plague humanity has yet to be turned. This book helps to turn us from a dash to oblivion.

Assessment and Management of Plant Invasions (Springer Series on Environmental Management)

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Assessment and Management of Plant Invasions (Springer Series on Environmental Management)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0387948090

Book Description

Biological invasion of native plant communities is a high-priority problem in the field of environmental management. Resource managers, biologists, and all those involved in plant communities must consider ecological interactions when assessing both the effects of plant invasion and the long-term effects of management. Sections of the book cover human perceptions of invading plants, assessment of ecological interactions, direct management, and regulation and advocacy. It also includes an appendix with descriptive data for many of the worst weeds.

Biological Invasions: Economic and Environmental Costs of Alien Plant, Animal, and Microbe Species

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Biological Invasions: Economic and Environmental Costs of Alien Plant, Animal, and Microbe Species

Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0849308364

Book Description

Biological Invasions assembles detailed information on components of the invasive-species problem from six continents. This volume reconfirms the diverse and unpredictable roles that non-native species assume as they invade new ecosystems: destruction of vital crops and forests, major damages to ecosystems leading to loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, and water loss. In addition, it covers the impact of disease organisms on human health and livestock. Information is provided on how the non-native species invade new ecosystems and the subsequent environmental effects of these invading species. Wherever possible, estimates on the economic impacts of the invading species are included.

The Ecology and Management of Biological Invasions in Southern Africa: Proceedings of the National Synthesis Symposium on the Ecology of Biological Invasions

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The Ecology and Management of Biological Invasions in Southern Africa: Proceedings of the National Synthesis Symposium on the Ecology of Biological Invasions

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Based on a symposium held by the South African National Programme for Ecosystem Research, this book has been compiled in response to the increasing realization worldwide, but notably in South Africa, that introduced species pose a true ecological and economic threat to agricultural and
conservation activities. The authors review current knowledge and management practice in response to the invasive spread of introduced species in South Africa, and focus on the study of species which have invaded non-agricultural regions, thereby disrupting natural ecosystem processes. The
ecological processes involved are described, as are basic principles of management of invasive species in protected ecosystems and grazing lands. Using case studies to demonstrate timing location rate, extent of spread, mode and motivation of introduction, impact, and control strategies for a
variety of South African species, this unique work offers helpful guidelines for management and ecological understanding that can be applied internationally.

Ecology of Biological Invasions of North America and Hawaii (Ecological Studies)

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Ecology of Biological Invasions of North America and Hawaii (Ecological Studies)
Harold A. Mooney
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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