Invasive means “Tending to spread very quickly and undesirably or harmfully.”
Biodiversity means “The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable.”
Invasive species are primarily spread by human activities, often unintentionally. People, and the goods we use, travel around the world very quickly, and they often carry uninvited species with them. For example, ships occasionally carry aquatic organisms in their ballast water. Also, some ornamental plants can escape into the wild and become invasive.
Invasive species are the second largest threat to biodiversity after habitat loss. An invasive species is a species that is not native to a particular area. It arrives (usually with human help), establishes a population, and spreads on its own.
The impacts of alien invasive species are immense, insidious and usually irreversible. Invasive species may be as damaging to native species and ecosystems on a global scale as the loss and degradation of habitats. It has caused hundreds of extinctions. The ecological cost is the irretrievable loss of native species and ecosystems.
An example of invasive species is the Mongoose. It threatens endemic species on tropical cane-growing islands. They continue to cause livestock damage while poising a disease risk. The European red foxes that were introduced into Australia and
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The impacts of invasive species on biodiversity are very broadly demonstrated and can occur in all different habitats. In one example, the eel swim bladder nematode introduced parasites and the squirrel poxvirus introduced pathogens. They were not found previously there. In another example, the ruddy duck diluted the native gene pool in Ireland by interbreeding with native species, and the muntjac deer which reduced the native biodiverstiy by grazing on the native