A new chapter: Invasive Species 101

'Calling all units, I repeat, calling all units. This is your inspector calling and I have some important news. I'm going to give up fighting crime and start a new career. I've decided to begin a blog on invasive species and from now on, would like to be referred to as... 'The Invader Inspector!'.

A new career path (If this picture had something more on the right it would undoubtedly be invasive species related)

Now I know, calling myself an 'inspector' is a bit presumptuous (I haven't really risen through any ranks), but it has a better ring to it than 'The Invader Police Constable', so I'm cool my self promotion...

Anyway, now that you know my quite frankly awesome back-story, I should probably explain what I'm actually going to be blogging about!

The subject of invasive species is one that I find incredibly fascinating due to the complex nature of many of the ecological processes associated with the phenomena. In many ways, understanding these processes and their links is like trying to piece together a crime-scene... bloody difficult!

Not clueless: The evidence is there, explaining the how and why is the difficult part...

The word 'invasion' probably conjures up different images in people's minds. Many will think of wars that have devastated millions of lives . Fans of 1970's video games may picture themselves shooting down retro style aliens. Others could even associate it with an obscure movie. 

DISCLAIMER: This blog does not intend to cover extraterrestrial invasions, but if one happens in the next three months, I'm willing to adapt.

 However, a proper definition would probably be useful here. So here goes. The word 'invasion' is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as:

noun. The action of invading a country or territory as an enemy; an entrance or incursion with armed force; a hostile inroad.

Clearly this is an accurate definition, but to me it conjures up an image of a clan of grey squirrel with spears charging through no-mans-land into the realms of the red squirrel. I think things need to be ecologied up a bit...

Squirrel warfare, sounds nuts to me.

Ecologically speaking, invasive species are non-native species (ones that do not occur naturally in an area) that spread and rapidly dominate over native species.

In fact, invasive species introductions are capable of transforming 'a pristine forest to pasture', implicated in species extinctions and are increasingly viewed as one of the most prevalent anthropogenic global changes in the biosphere. They've even been suggested as singular grounds for a new geological epoch.

Here today, gone tomorrow: could invasions cause more species to join the dodo in extinctionland?

Now that's more like it, clearly this is a serious issue within the realms of global environmental change and well worthy of an active commentary and discussion.

Over the course of this blog I hope to portray the subject in a way that allows you to actively share in, understand and enjoy my own personal interest.

Here's just some of the things you can look forward to:

• Case studies on the causes and impacts of individual invasive species.
• Pieces placing invasive species into a broader context, with regards to topics such as ecosystem functioning.
• Journeys into the past to analyse the drivers of today's invasions.
• Management strategies for dealing with invasions.

And plenty more!!!

Sounds good right? Tune in for some more soon folks.

Over and out

The Invader Inspector