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Climate Change heighten invasive species threat
Invasive species a big threat
ANU Climate Change Institute executive director Will Steffen and others were commissioned by the Australian Government to assess the vulnerability of Australian biodiversity to climate change.
Numerous examples of invasive species interacting with climate change are noted: cats becoming a threat on islands that have less rainfall, pathogens extending their range as temperatures increase, gamba grass and other exotic pasture grasses intensifying fire regimes, and floods spreading weeds such as athel pine.
For the Kakadu wetlands, the major climate change threats aren’t direct climatic impacts, but those due to the interaction of changing fire regimes, intrusion of saltwater and weed and pest invasions.
To increase the resilience of native species, the authors advocate minimising or removing existing stressors such as invasive species.
This requires improving quarantine and biosecurity, increasing investment in technologies and efforts to control invasive species, improving predictions about the effects of climate change on invasive species, and managing connectivity to minimise dispersal of invasive species into new areas.
(Courtesy Invasive Species Council Pest and Climate Change Ebulletin).
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