Essay On Biological Invasion

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The planet has a huge diversity of flora and fauna, with each species uniquely adapted to its own environment. Some species show a greater capacity to adapt to other environments and have spread over time to new areas, colonizing them. Reptiles have a very long history on this planet and have evolved many complex and ingenious ways of adapting to all environments on earth. There are two main ways species spread from one area to another: natural dispersal and anthropogenic spread. Natural spread has always occurred throughout history, and is generally slow and gradual. Anthropogenic spread occurs through, or is enabled by, human activities and can be both intentional and accidental (Nentwig 2007). It is only the anthropogenic spread of reptiles…show more content…
This process is known as biological invasion. To understand how reptile can invade, they first need to be defined. Chapter 2 explains what reptiles are and what their role is within ecosystems. The process of invasion consists of three stages; arrival, establishment and spread (Liebhold and Bascompte 2003) and it is detailed in chapter 3. Chapter 4 looks into the reasons biological invasions can be a threat. Understanding the process of invasion is important, as this will help assessing the risk of a particular species invading successfully, which is covered in chapter 5. The various options of detecting, controlling and eradicating biological invasions is detailed in chapter 6. Chapter 7 concludes this essay. Reptiles, including the dinosaurs that dominated terrestrial life for millions of years, are well known throughout the world. Far from primitive, reptiles have adapted physiologically to a huge range of habitats and come in all shapes and sizes (Pincheira-Donoso et al. 2013). Reptiles have successfully colonized all ranges of climate, and occur throughout warmer oceans and on each continent except for Antarctica (Alexander and Marais 2007). The definition of reptiles is not as straightforward as with other classes. Many definitions have existed and it remains ambiguous today (Modesto and Anderson

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