Because of the devastation caused by the combined impacts of the balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae; BWA, a non-native insect) and chronic acid deposition, Picea-Abies (spruce-fir) forests are one of the most threatened vegetation communities in North America.
These heady questions are beyond the scope of an article like this, but national, collaborative groups such as the Continental Dialogue on Non-Native Forest Insects & Diseases may provide a model for addressing these paradoxes in the future.
The listing decision, published on Friday in the Federal Register, classifies seven varieties of yellow-faced or masked bees as endangered, due to such factors as habitat loss, wildfires and the invasion of non-native plants and insects.
-How might non-native animal or insect species affect a habitat?
(Plant species richness is increased through non-native plants, but insect and animal species richness plummets).
Although many insects, non-native and native, feed on Phragmites, it is not generally regulated by insect herbivory (Balme 2000).
"Only 7% of insects can eat non-native plants.
A native oak feeds up to four hundred species of beneficial insects, where a non-native maple feeds relatively few.
Ecological disturbances, including wildfire, insect outbreaks, and non-native species, which are expected to increase in a warmer climate, will affect species distribution, tree age, and vegetation structure, facilitating transitions to new combinations of species and vegetation patterns.
There isn't a native in it, but the non-native plants do the same things for insects and animals as the native ones do".
