Another interesting report is up at ScienceDaily. A student studying non-native isopods ("roly-polys") found that their presence is actually linked to increased soil nutrient levels. The article kind of twists things at the end, implying that nutrient influx caused by isopod waste would be a good thing, which is not necessarily true. Maybe if earthworms and isopods work together they can find a nice balance and things will get back to normal :-).
1 comment:
that's really interesting... Raises some important questions. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with invasive species, maybe a criteria should be created to determine the degree to which any given species is harmful to the ecosystem to which it is introduced. What do you think? Do you know of any rubric for this?
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