ECOLOGY
The Widening Gap between Popular Belief & Science on “Invasive Species”
Don’t believe the hype
This is just a quick reflection I want to share.
As I’ve been mentioning here, my main winter project has been working on a book with Nikki Hill, tentatively entitled, “Don’t Blame the Messenger: A critique of the ‘invasive plant’ narrative.” As part of that effort, I’ve been reading lots of scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals from invasion biology and other fields, and it’s been really eye-opening.
The popular narrative of “invasive plants” is really black and white. These are bad plants. They don’t belong here. They cause harm to native plants. They’re upsetting the balance of nature. They must be eradicated. It’s a scary monster story and a militant call to arms rolled into one.
But the science is far more nuanced. The amount of debate and the lack of consensus within the field is quite striking, actually, and has been growing over time. Invasion biology as a distinct area of study only goes back to the early ’80s and didn’t really take off until the ’90s. Given this short history, it’s possible to get a picture of where it was and where it’s going, and where it’s going is further away from the heroes and villains trope.