NEED PROFESSIONAL ADVICE ONLY! Need comments on article I found.

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Matt724

Matt724

Fire Eel
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Jan 19, 2009
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I'm currently enrolled in a summer school Critical Thinking & Composition source and I have two days to write a whole refutation essay. My position is that all invasive species are bad and I am refuting an essay by Alan Burdick who says that not all invasive species are bad. I understand that maybe not "ALL" invasive species are bad, but I need some help forming an argument that "MOST" are harmful to the environment and ourselves. Burdick makes 3 main claims that I am going to try and refute: (1) that the environment can simply make room in its ecosystem for extra non-native species; (2) that biodiversity increases as invasive species are introduced; and (3) that invasive species don't make ecosystems shrink or disappear.

My counter arguments are these: (1) give specific examples of invasive species that have caused major ecosystem damage such as snakeheads, asian carps, caurpela taxifolia the seaweed, etc.; (2) find scientific articles with numerical evidence that biodiversity is in fact harmed - there's a few sources I found on ebscohost -; and (3) find examples such as the lake crofton in maryland.

I need some help though, this is the first refutation essay I've ever written and if anyone can give good advice, that'd be much appreciated.

Here's the link to the article: http://www.aburdick.com/features_and_essays/the_truth_about_invasive_speci.html
 
Look up the damage done to drainages by the zebra mussel. The damage inflicted to levee systems by large aussie Charax sp. crayfish to to US levee systems. Another route would be the crayfish virus that occurred in europe a couple of decades ago. In an effort to propagate Cambarus (Louisiana) crays in europe, a virus that the US crays evolved an immunity to nearly wiped out native european crayfish populations.
 
Oddball;4287665; said:
Look up the damage done to drainages by the zebra mussel. The damage inflicted to levee systems by large aussie Charax sp. crayfish to to US levee systems. Another route would be the crayfish virus that occurred in europe a couple of decades ago. In an effort to propagate Cambarus (Louisiana) crays in europe, a virus that the US crays evolved an immunity to nearly wiped out native european crayfish populations.
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thank you for this, this will help. I think I'm going to try and incorporate the aussie charax crafish that damaged the levee system, but I also need an additional example for my third paragraph in which an invasive species causes a total crash of an ecosystem other than the snakehead lake crofton incident. I believe I recall some insect or rat species that caused entire crops to die out, i think that would work. And maybe I'll incorporate a fourth paragraph on the diseases that animals bring because you and my mom have brought that up. she said that the h1n1 flu and sarrs was transported by invasive species, but i don't know where to find the evidence for that.
 
bubbles123;4287706; said:
How about the Nile Perch and it's effect on Lake Victoria.
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oh that's perfect, thank you. I just read this: http://www.issg.org/database/species/search.asp?st=100ss and the nile perch is number 45 and it apparently "has contributed to the extinction of more than 200 endemic fish species through predation and competition for food."
 
Boiga irregularis (reptile)
Native island species are predisposed and vulnerable to local extinction by invaders. When the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) was accidentally introduced to Guam it caused the local extinction of most of the island’s native bird and lizard species. It also caused "cascading" ecological effects by removing native pollinators, causing the subsequent decline of native plant species. The ecosystem fragility of other Pacific islands to which cargo flows from Guam has made the potential spread of the brown tree snake from Guam a major concern.
Common Names: Braune Nachtbaumnatter, Brown catsnake, brown tree snake, brown treesnake, culepla, kulebla
 
caulerpa taxifolia, not caulperla or whatever you had.

oh, and the nile perch, while wiping out native cichlids, also provides a major food source for the surrouding areas.. i think.
 
BlackShark11k;4287824; said:
caulerpa taxifolia, not caulperla or whatever you had.

oh, and the nile perch, while wiping out native cichlids, also provides a major food source for the surrouding areas.. i think.
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oh thankyou for the correction. and yes i know about the nile perch, but you cannot deny that it did major ecological damage by lowering the biodiversity level by 200 species. I'm using the nile perch to refute Burdick's claim that invasive species actually increase biodiversity levels.
 
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