Invasive Species And Human Health

Invasive alien plants and animals are known for their disruption of ecosystems and threat to biodiversity. This book highlights their major impact on human health. This includes not only direct effects through contact with the species via bites, wounds and disease, but also indirect effects caused by changes induced in ecosystems by invasive species, such as more water hyacinth increasing mosquito levels and thereby the potential for malaria. Covering a wide range of case studies from different taxa (animals and plants), and giving an overview of the diverse impacts of invasive species on health in developed and developing countries, the book is a significant contribution that will help in prioritizing approaches to controlling invasive species and mitigating their health effects. It covers invasive plants, marine species, spiders and other arachnids, ticks and dust mites, insects, mosquitos and other diptera, freshwater species (invertebrates and fishes), amphibians and reptiles, birds and mammals. The broad spectrum of the analyzed case studies will ensure the appeal of the book to a wide public, including researchers of biological invasions, doctors, policy-makers and managers, and students of invasive species in ecology, animal and plant biology and public health medicine.

Based on a selection of papers presented at the Norway/UN Conference on Alien Species, Trondheim, Norway

This open access book describes the serious threat of invasive species to native ecosystems. Invasive species have caused and will continue to cause enormous ecological and economic damage with ever increasing world trade. This multi-disciplinary book, written by over 100 national experts, presents the latest research on a wide range of natural science and social science fields that explore the ecology, impacts, and practical tools for management of invasive species. It covers species of all taxonomic groups from insects and pathogens, to plants, vertebrates, and aquatic organisms that impact a diversity of habitats in forests, rangelands and grasslands of the United States. It is well-illustrated, provides summaries of the most important invasive species and issues impacting all regions of the country, and includes a comprehensive primary reference list for each topic. This scientific synthesis provides the cultural, economic, scientific and social context for addressing environmental challenges posed by invasive species and will be a valuable resource for scholars, policy makers, natural resource managers and practitioners.

INVASIVE ALIEN SPECIES Invasive Alien Species: Observations and Issues from Around the World Volume 1: Issues and Invasions in Africa Invasive alien species are spreading into new ecosystems each year. The impacts caused by these invaders can be swift and devastating. The topic of invasive alien species is large, complex, and globally significant at various scales, exacerbated by the globalization of world economies and increased trade and commerce that has overcome natural barriers to species movement. Invasive alien species threaten global food supplies, water quality and availability, and energy production and delivery. With the added risks associated with global climate change, the global homogenization of plants, animals, and microbes is a major factor in the decline in ecosystem health and ecosystem services worldwide. To counter this trend, there is a critical need to unify governments, cultures, and programs to improve cross-boundary coordination to effectively address the wide range of invasive alien species threats to the environment, economies, and to plant and animal health; particularly human health. This 4-volume work is the first to compile a set of useful material for key topics, to provide a better understanding of the overall global threat of invasive alien species and the diverse array of problems faced around the world, and assemble material that includes potential replicable solutions to overcome these threats. The books also highlight the threat posed by invasive alien species in terms of a global ‘call to action’. Since invasive species know no boundaries, it is our hope that by compiling material from different scientific and social perspectives around the world, and sharing knowledge and examples of a diverse array of associated topics, we can advance global awareness and improve unified national responses to the threat posed by invasive alien species.

Global trade and the spread of human populations have increasingly moved thousands of native animal and plant species across the natural barriers that have kept them ecologically separated for millions of years. Because some of them thrive in their new regions and harm the environment, the economy, and human health, the prevention and management of such invasive species has become a major local, national, and international policy initiative. Yet even though ecologists have been studying the negative (and sometimes positive) environmental impacts of invasive species and trying to curb their proliferation, and even though their work has in some cases stimulated public conversation and policy, politicians have generally ignored their recommendations. As a result, ecologists have achieved limited success in slowing the spread of invasives. They ve been realizing that in order to fully characterize the impacts of these species, they need to engage with other relevant disciplines across the social and legal sciences as well as the humanities. Drawing together a wide variety of ecologists, historians, economists, legal scholars, policymakers, and communication scholars, Invasive Species in a Globalized World aims to facilitate a dialogue among these various disciplines in order to fully understand invasives and stop their spread. Addressing the numerous challenges associated with reducing invasive impacts, the contributors provide direct policy recommendations, strategies for communicating the risks of invasive species, and insight into how public discourse drives our response to these risks."

Taking a global perspective, this book examines what will happen to invasive species, including plants, animals and pathogens,with current and expected man-made climate change.

The implications of biodiversity loss for the global environment have been widely discussed, but only recently has attention been paid to its direct and serious effects on human health. Biodiversity loss affects the spread of human diseases, causes a loss of medical models, diminishes the supplies of raw materials for drug discovery and biotechnology, and threatens food production and water quality. Biodiversity and Human Health brings together leading thinkers on the global environment and biomedicine to explore the human health consequences of the loss of biological diversity. Based on a two-day conference sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution, the book opens a dialogue among experts from the fields of public health, biology, epidemiology, botany, ecology, demography, and pharmacology on this vital but often neglected concern. Contributors discuss the uses and significance of biodiversity to the practice of medicine today, and develop strategies for conservation of these critical resources. Topics examined include: the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss emerging infectious diseases and the loss of biodiversity the significance and use of both prescription and herbal biodiversity-derived remedies indigenous and local peoples and their health care systems sustainable use of biodiversity for medicine an agenda for the future In addition to the editors, contributors include Anthony Artuso, Byron Bailey, Jensa Bell, Bhaswati Bhattacharya, Michael Boyd, Mary S. Campbell, Eric Chivian, Paul Cox, Gordon Cragg, Andrew Dobson, Kate Duffy-Mazan, Robert Engelman, Paul Epstein, Alexandra S. Fairfield, John Grupenhoff, Daniel Janzen, Catherine A. Laughin, Katy Moran, Robert McCaleb, Thomas Mays, David Newman, Charles Peters, Walter Reid, and John Vandermeer. The book provides a common framework for physicians and biomedical researchers who wish to learn more about environmental concerns, and for members of the environmental community who desire a greater understanding of biomedical issues.