Lecturer: James Reeler

Material by: Sam Hopkins & Vanessa Couldridge

BCB 341: Principles of Conservation Biology

Invasion by alien species can have a significant impact on biodiversity

Usually there are few predatory species/diseases for successful invaders (competitive advantage)

Exacerbated by habitat destruction/disturbance Possibly exacerbated by climate shifts – expansion into

new suitable ranges Primary contemporary cause – humans

Deliberate (plants/animals with economic/aesthetic uses)

Accidental – “piggybacking” on other species

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

Not all species that are transported to new areas become invasive.

There are several characteristics of good invaders:

High reproductive rate (quickly build up a large population under favourable conditions)

Generalist species (variable diet, no strong habitat requirements)

Good dispersers (can rapidly spread to new areas & find suitable habitats)

INVASION – WHO?INVASION – WHO?

Certain areas are more vulnerable to invasion Disturbed areas/early succession

Tend to have unexploited resources/empty niches

Little competition Remote islands with low diversity

Simple food webs/empty niche space Remote islands/fragments with no predators

Often naive prey (included plants poorly adapted to herbivory

INVASION – WHERE?INVASION – WHERE?

Generally follows three stages: 1. Usually start with a few individuals

High initial likelihood of population extinction Initial establishment phase – growing

population, little size expansion 2. Spreads from initial site and increases range

(expansion phase) 3. Fills all available habitat and enters saturation

phase.

INVASION – HOW?INVASION – HOW?

The following examples of invasive species have been selected for discussion: Rinderpest The black rat (Rattus rattus) The toad/platanna – Xenopus laevis Chestnut blight

CASE STUDIESCASE STUDIES

Viral disease that affects primarily cattle (also known as cattle plague)

All cloven-hoofed wild and domestic are animals susceptible to the disease

Belongs to the genus Morbillivirus Affects gastrointestinal and respiratory systems Highly contagious and usually fatal; it can wipe

out entire populations Death occurs 6-12 days after the first symptoms

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RINDERPESTRINDERPEST

Introduced to Africa from Asia in 1887 Disease was present in Indian cattle imported to

the east coast of Africa to feed the Italian army, which was invading Ethiopia at the time

Quickly spread to local cattle and wildlife populations

From there the disease swept across eastern and southern Africa, with devastating consequences

Within 10 years it had reached South Africa

RINDERPEST: INTRODUCTION TO RINDERPEST: INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAAFRICA

This map shows the spread of the disease across the African continent

The fauna and flora of Africa south of the Sahara changed completely as a result

RINDERPEST: SPREAD IN AFRICARINDERPEST: SPREAD IN AFRICA

Millions of animals died, both wild and domestic Reports indicate more than 90% of cattle and

wildebeest were wiped out

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RINDERPEST: PLAGUE OF 1890SRINDERPEST: PLAGUE OF 1890S

Wildlife killed by rinderpest included wildebeest, buffalo, giraffe, warthog, eland, kudu, and other buck species

Predators also suffered as their prey species disappeared; lions reportedly became man-eaters

Pastoralists depending on cattle for their livelihood faced severe hardship and death

Ox-wagon transport was brought to a standstill Loss of grazers transformed the landscape

RINDERPEST: DEVASTATION RINDERPEST: DEVASTATION CAUSEDCAUSED

The disease was eventually brought under control through early attempts at vaccination and natural immunity among surviving animals

In the early 1960s a more reliable vaccine was developed and between 1962 and 1976 there was a large-scale attempt to eradicate rinderpest entirely from Africa through mass vaccination

This was largely successful – 15 out of 17 countries were freed of the disease

Outbreaks still occur from time to time, but none as severe as the original plague of the 1890s

RINDERPEST: CONTROLRINDERPEST: CONTROL

Vaccination of cattle in the 1960s eliminated rinderpest from wildlife populations, as cattle could no longer act as a reservoir for the disease

Wildebeest numbers in the Serengeti increased by about six-fold over a period of 15 years; Buffalo numbers also increased dramatically

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RINDERPEST: RECOVERYRINDERPEST: RECOVERY

This had an impact on the environment by changing grassland into woodland – an increase in grazers eliminated the fuel for fires that control tree growth. Fires are now less frequent and do not burn as hot

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RINDERPEST: LANDSCAPE CHANGERINDERPEST: LANDSCAPE CHANGE

Ironically, it has been suggested that eradication of rinderpest has led to an increase in canine distemper among lions

Lions feeding on wildebeest infected with rinderpest may have gained immunity to canine distemper, since the two viruses are very similar to each other (both Morbilliviruses)

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RINDERPEST AND CANINE RINDERPEST AND CANINE DISTEMPERDISTEMPER

The Black Rat (Rattus rattus) was originally from Asia

It made its way to the near East in Roman time It was in Europe in the 8th century From Europe it had a boat ticket to the rest of the

world Rats are nocturnal Rats are omnivorous They are good breeders

THE RATTHE RAT11

The rat and a number of other rodents are largely responsible for out breaks of plague through history

Humans as carriers of rats also participated in the spread of the disease

Often the rats would then infect native rodents with the disease

THE RAT AND THE PLAGUETHE RAT AND THE PLAGUE22

An early example is the plague of Justinian 3

544, The first great plague 4

1348, Black Death 5

1665, Great Plague 6

1899, Plague in South Africa 7

Recent plague – 2005/ 2006 DRC 8,9

HISTORY OF THE PLAGUEHISTORY OF THE PLAGUE

Lundy island is off the coast of North Devon, UK

Rats reached the island 200 years ago

Rat numbers reached 40,000 Extermination started in 2003 Puffin and Manx Shearwater

numbers had declined Now rats gone, hopefully bird

numbers will increase

OTHER EFFECTS OF RAT INVASION – OTHER EFFECTS OF RAT INVASION – LUNDY PUFFINS LUNDY PUFFINS 10, 1110, 11

Reached Pacific Islands in the 17th century Now established on 28 groups of islands Eat native snails, beetles, spiders, moths, stick insects, and

fruit, eggs and young of birds Largest threat to the Rarotonga flycatcher Other Island birds affected

Sooty terns, Seychelles Bonin Petrels, Hawaii Galapagos dark-rumped petrels Galapagos islands White tailed tropic birds Bermuda

OTHER EFFECTS OF RAT INVASION – OTHER EFFECTS OF RAT INVASION – PACIFIC ISLANDS PACIFIC ISLANDS 12,1312,13

Xenopus laevis is the common platanna in Southern Africa

It is mainly aquatic Females reach 130 mm Eats insects, small fish,

young and larvae of its own species or other species of frogs

Adults can breed more than once per season

THE TOAD –THE TOAD –XENOPUS LAEVIS XENOPUS LAEVIS 1414

Xenopus laevis is found about the world owing to Lab animals Pet trade Pregnancy tests

These animals escape and can form viable populations Now found in USA, Chile, Mexico, France, Indonesia and the UK These frogs are a great invader owing to

Good in disturbed environments Has a varied diet High reproductive rate High salt tolerance Disease resistant Can move overland or through rivers and streams

THE TOAD –THE TOAD –XENOPUS LAEVIS XENOPUS LAEVIS 1414

Xenopus laevis are a problem because they Predate upon and

compete with native species

Are toxic to predators Make water turbid

THE TOAD –THE TOAD –XENOPUS LAEVIS XENOPUS LAEVIS 1414

Seen in Southern California X. laevis has been present

since the 1960s Preys on the Tide Water Goby Preys on the Endangered

Red-legged frog Also managed to establish parasites that need alternate

hosts 15

In South Wales, Xenopus were found to have a very varied diet ranging from zooplankton to bank voles to Xenopus eggs 16

THE TOAD –THE TOAD –XENOPUS LAEVISXENOPUS LAEVIS

In South Africa X. laevis is an invasive Animals are moved out of their natural range by

fisherman Animals make use of habitats disturbed by

humans Have hybridized with Xenopus gilli

THE TOAD –THE TOAD –XENOPUS LAEVIS XENOPUS LAEVIS 1717

Maine to Georgia and west to Ohio and Tennessee. (Braun, 1950)

Commonly made up 25% or more of mixed stands

Formed pure stands on many dry Appalachian ridgetops and near densely populated areas.

Map of Historical Range of Castanea dentata (Saucier, 1973)

Common on midslopes and other moderately dry soils

Shared moist meso-phytic soils with many other species

Tap root 4 to 5 ft down

Mature chestnuts could be 600 years old and average up to five feet in diameter and 100 feet tall

Many specimens of 8 to 10 feet in diameter were recorded

Wildlife depended on the abundant crop of chestnuts

Many species of insects fed on the leaves, flowers, and nuts

Throughout much of the range chestnut had the most timber volume of any species

It was half the standing timber volume of CT

Was the major source of tannin for leather pro-duction (6-11 % tannin content)

Chestnuts

Fast growing -reached half ultimate height by 20th year

Resistant to decay

Straight and tall - often branch free for 50 feet

Only white pine & tulip poplar could grow taller

Posts & railroad ties

Telephone poles (65 feet)

Construction

Fuel

Fine furniture & musical instruments

Scientific forest management in the US was just getting started when the country lost its most important hard wood species (Smith, 2000)

Foresters had begun to develop comprehensive plans for intensive management

Near densely populated areas Chestnut often formed nearly complete stands

due to rapid growth from stump sprouts

repeated coppicing for fuelwood

Experts estimate that American Chestnut represented half the commercial value of all Eastern North American hardwoods

“… “… the most valuable and usable tree that the most valuable and usable tree that ever grew in the Eastern United States.”ever grew in the Eastern United States.”

In 1904, Herman Merkel, a forester at the New York Zoological Garden, found odd cankers on American chestnut trees in the park

"rapid & sudden death of many branches stems & trees"

American Chestnut produces a sweet but small nut 

Chinese chestnut produces a large but generally tasteless nut

Thomas Jefferson imported European or Spanish chestnut

(Castanea sativa) grafted it onto native root stocks at Monticello.

In 1876, a nurseryman in Flushing, NY, imported the Japanese chestnut (C. crenata). More were brought over in 1882 and 1886.

Chinese chestnut (C. Molissima) was brought across from Ichang in 1900. to hybridize for ornamentals and nut

production

Ascomycete

Produces both conidia & ascospores

Pycnidia stromata break through the lenticels and produce conidia and perithecia producing ascospores are formed

Animals and insects

Ascospores are shot into the air after rain storms in the fall

Rain (conidia)

Infects trunk and branches Only above ground parts

of trees

active growth & sporulation

Enters through fissures or wounds in the bark

Grows in and under the bark, girdling the cambium.

Kill the tree above the point of infection.

Causes swollen or sunken orange-colored cankers on the limbs and trunks of the chestnut trees.

The leaves above the point of infection die, followed by the limbs.

Within two to ten years the entire tree is dead.

Not uncommon to find many cankers on one tree

The fungus has girdled the tree and is producing yellow conidia asexual spores

Like most cankers - fairly specific host range

Serious pathogen: American & European (infects Japanese and Chinese much less)

Moderate pathogen: Chinquapin & Live Oak 

Can also be found infecting/living on numerous oak species in the US

Aggressive attempts to halt the spread of the blight were made by PA and NY removed chestnut over

a large area to halt southward spread

In 1911-1913, the U.S. Congress appropriated special funds to enable foresters to study and control the blight

Horticulturalists, found a blight-free area in Pennsylvania and quickly imported trees to form an experiment station

transported the blight and created a new epicenter

Accelerated spread in PA

Cuts in funding for Chestnut blight research:

With the onset of World War I in 1914

The evident futility of control efforts

By 1926, fungus reported throughout native range

By 1940, virtually all (an estimated 4 billion) were dead or infected with the blight

Chestnut was the dominant wood processed at PA sawmills in the early 1920s, salvage logging to make use of the dead

and dying trees

“…a tragic loss, one of the worst natural calamities ever experienced by this nation”

Chestnut in Southern range was first affected by Phytophtera cinnamomum

Now affecting hybrids

In 1974, the Oriental Chestnut Gall Wasp (Dryocosmus kuriphilus) was brought to the US

Female lays eggs in chestnut vegetative buds

Galls suppress shoot elongation and reduce fruiting

Heavy infestations can kill the trees (afflicts both American and Chinese chestnuts at the southern end of their ranges)

Threatening complete extinction

(Anagnostakis, 1994)

The fungus was later introduced into Europe (for tree breeding) from America

Moved through Europe killing European Chestnut

However, it was observed that many trees, while infected and full of cankers, did not die

Instead of sunken diffuse cankers, surviving European chestnuts had swollen cankers with evidence of "healing" along the margins.

Many forest pathologists began working on this healing canker

Speculation that: European Chestnut was less

susceptible That the fungus had mutated That it was a different fungus

altogether 

Noticed that a different colored fungus was recovered from "healing cankers"

Instead of the typical orange colored Cryphonectria parasitica fungus, a white-colored fungus was found.  White fungus was slower growing and produced fewer

spores When you "sprayed" the white fungus on a "killing

canker" the "killing canker"  became a "healing canker" (Europe)

Determined that the white hypovirulent strains had become infected with a simple dsRNA  virus

This virus was making the fungus "sick“

A slower fungus allowed the tree to respond to a point where the tree could survive infection

Grente reported in 1965 that ‘hypovirulent’ strains from Italy did not kill chestnut trees

Began a program of active intervention when blight was found in France blight strains with dsRNA passed

hypovirulence to lethal strains

Treatment of new cankers as they formed resulted in a successful ‘biological therapy’ of the disease. treat every canker for several years

For a number of reasons biological control of chestnut blight does not work as well in the US

Different mating types of the fungus Lack of chestnut to support conversion of

the fungus by the virus

The many different types of virus in the United States

Hypovirulent strains were found in the United States Most notably in Michigan

Successful because: Few mating types High number of Chestnut Isolated from the native range   

Less diversity of pathogen in MI so that hypovirulence can transfer more readily

The transmission of hypovirulence from strain to strain of the fungus is restricted by a genetic system of vegetative incompatibility

Six loci, each with two alleles in a system of heterogenic incompatibility which keep the strains of the fungus from fusing and passing hypovirulence (Huber and Milgroom)

Virus transfer is restricted when there are different alleles at the vegetative incompatibility loci

Reduced to a short lived sprouting understory tree

Fungus can not survive below the ground.  roots continue to live and they send up

stump sprouts.   

Stump sprouts grow until infected the stump re-sprouts again

Little chance for resistance to evolve sprouts typically killed before they

become sexually mature sexual reproduction rare

Largest living (>3 ft dbh) about 20 miles east of La Crosse, WI.

10 chestnuts planted in 1885 Seeds propagated around 50

acres and more than 3000 trees Trees were blight free due to

isolation until a canker was found in 1986

Now over 1600 cankers are present on 530 trees.

Virus was introduced in 1992 – not successful

Approaches:

Hypovirulent strains

Asian blight resistance

Natural resistance Forest management practices

Combination of the four approaches can bring the chestnut back Individual or group selection openings-

an integrated management system using grafted trees, inoculating them with hypovirulent strains, and controlling hardwood competition

Timber production- backcross approaches

The selected examples demostrate the damage that invasive species can do to both the natural environment and human interests.

For more information on invasive species see the Invasion Biology course.

CONCLUDING REMARKSCONCLUDING REMARKS

1. Wikipedia contributors, Black Rat, [accessed 2006 July 30] Wikipedia, The free Encyclopaedia, Available from:En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black Rat

2. Gross, L. (1995). How the plague bacillus and its transmission through fleas were discovered: Reminiscences from my years at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 92: 7690-7611.

3. Dols, M. (1974) Plague in Early Islamic History Journal of the American Oriental Society 94:371-3834. Maddicott, J. R.(1997) Plague in Seventh -Century England. The past and present society 5. Davis, D. The Scarcity of rats and the black death: an ecological history, Journal of Interdisciplinary history 16: 455-4706. Storey of the Plague,(2006) channel 4 [accessed July 30th 2006]. Found at

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/plague/experts.html7. May, J. M. (1952). Map of the world distribution of plague. Geographical review 42:628-630.8. BBC news (2005) DR Congo plague outbreak spreads [accessed July 30th 2006] news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4290783.stm9. the world health organization (2006). Plague in the DRC. [accessed July 30th 2006]

www.who.int/csr/don/2006_06_14/en/index.html10. Lundy shore office [accessed July 30th 2006] http://www.lundy_ island.co.uk

11. BBC news (2005) Lundy Rats. [accessed 30th July 2006] www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2005/06/08/lundy_rats_feature.shtml)

12. Atkinson, I. A. E and Atkinson, T. J. (2000) Land vertebrates as invasive species on islands served by the south pacific regional ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME. In: Invasive species in the pacific: A Technical review and draft regional strategy. South Pacific regional environment program Samoa: 19-84

13. G. McCormack. (2005). The Status of Cook Island Birds 1996, Cook Island Biodiversity and natural heritage http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org/showarcticle.asp?id=7

14. Measy, J. (2004). Global Invasive species database Xenopus laevis. [accessed 30th July 2006] Found at http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=ISO&fr=1&sts=sss

15. Lafferty, K. and Page, C. (1997) Predation on the endangered Tide Water Goby, Eucyclobius newberryi, by the introduced African clawed frog I, Xenopus laevis, with notes on the frogs parasites. Copeia 1997: 589-592.

16. Measey, G. J. (1998) Diet of feral Xenopus laevis (Daudin) in South Wales, UK. Jnl Zool. 246:287-29817. Measy G. J. (2004) Xenopus laevis. In Atlas and red data book of the frogs of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, eds Minter, L.

et al.

REFERENCES FOR THE RAT AND THE TOADREFERENCES FOR THE RAT AND THE TOAD