When Biocontrol Isn’t Effective: Making Predictions and Understanding Consequences
Invasive species are a major threat to global biodiversity, second only to habitat destruction. One solution to the invasive plant species problem is biological control. Sometimes biological control is successful, and sometimes it is not. Thus, it is critical for ecologists to predict the likely success of biological control, and how much damage the control agent must inflict on an invasive species in order to significantly reduce its rate of population growth.
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| Format | |
| Resource Group | TIEE |
| Resource Group Link | https://ecoed.esa.org/index.php?P=SearchResults&F46=TIEE |
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| Life science discipline (subject) | |
| Keywords | biological control, demography, herbivory, indirect effects, invasive species, matrix modeling, population ecology, plant tolerance, trophic cascades, TIEE |
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| Pedagogical Use Category | |
| Pedagogical Use Description | In this issue students can build on interpreting graphs and teaching each other, to exploring how matrix models are used to predict potential effectiveness of biological control using an example from the literature. This exercise allows them to integrate research data into a computer program (R, which is freely available on the internet, http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/), hypothesize about and interpret their results, teach other students, and understand the application of the research. Further, they will learn about how trophic cascades can result in unintended consequences when scientists and communities decide to go forward with introducing biological control agents. |
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| Url | http://tiee.esa.org/vol/v6/figure_sets/biocontrol/abstract.html |
| Full Name of Primary Author | Michele R. Schutzenhofer |
| Primary Author Controlled Name | |
| Primary Author Affiliation | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Primary Author email | N/A |
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| Rights | Author retains copyrights |
| License | |
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| Review type | |
| Drought and Water Ecosystem Services Collection | Off |
| Conservation Targets Under Global Change Collection | Off |
| Big Data Collection | Off |
| Editors Choice | No |
| Resource Status | |
| Date Of Record Submission | 2009-02-01 |
| I Agree to EcoEdDL's Copyright Policy & Terms of Use | No |
| Date Of Record Release | 2011-03-09 13:45:43 |
| Last Modified By Id |
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| Date Last Modified | 2018-07-25 15:48:59 |
| Release Flag | Published |
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