Eradicating an invasive species might not always be the answer. New research suggests that in some cases eradication can harm already endangered species.
"This work advances a framework for cost-effective management solutions to the conflict between removing invasive species and conserving biodiversity," Alan Tessier, acting deputy division director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Biological Sciences, which supported the research through NSF's Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program, said a National Science Foundation news release.
The program hopes to gain insight into the "complex systems involving humans and nature," the news release reported.
An examples of this conundrum can be seen in the California Clapper Rail, which is a bird that lives only in San Francisco Bay. The bird relies on an invasive hybrid marsh grass called Spartina for nesting.
Urban development has rapidly destroyed the bird's historical natural habitat, forcing the birds to rely on this invasive grass. Researchers determined that instead of quickly eradicating the plants or restoring natural greenery legislation should focus on cutting down on the destruction of the non-native species until an appropriate habitat has been achieved.
"Just thinking from a single-species standpoint doesn't work," paper co-author and UC-Davis environmental scientist Alan Hastings, said in the news release.
"The whole management system needs to take longer, and you need to have much more flexibility in the timing of budget expenditures over a longer time-frame," the researcher said.
To make their findings the researchers looked at both biological and economic data on the invasive hybrid Spartina to develop a way to balance goals such as endangered species recovery and invasive species eradication.
As time goes on more endangered species are becoming dependent on invasive ones.
"As eradication programs increase in number, we expect this will be a more common conflict in the future," paper co-author and UC Davis scientist Ted Grosholz, said in the news release.
