Invasive Species

Today in class, we had a very interesting discussion about invasive species. Evey class member took in a set of five criteria used to evaluate how "mean" an invasive species was and five organisms that we evaluated using that set of criteria.
My criteria were:

1. It threatens the biological diversity of the ecosystem
2. Is adaptable to many conditions
3. High dispersal ability
4. Has fast growth 
5. Dominates over the existing species in the ecosystem it is inserted into

I evaluated the following:

1. Yersinia pestis (black/bubonic plague)
2. Vibrio cholera (cholera)
3. Batracochryditum dendrobaditis (cytrid frog fungus)
4. Beak and Feather Disease (BFDV)
5. Carcinus maenas (European Green Crab)

My goal was to concentrate on diseases, fungi, and animals that would not be very common in the discussion. However, I had a few shared points with classmates (notably Vibrio cholera). 

My winner was Yersinia pestis, because, out of the group that I assessed, it brought the most damage (1/3 of the European population), provides threats to the enviornment due to the fact that it could attack both humans and other small mammals such as mice and ferrets, is extremely adaptible (humans, some mammals and is facultative anaerobic), it has high dispersal ability (spreads exponentially once it is inserted in an enviornment without the ability to erradicate it), grows very fast and can kill a person in a couple weeks, and it dominates the area it is put into, leaving no room for other illnesses/bacteria.

In conclusion, I liked the discussion because it was entertaining and was an interactive way of learning about the ways in which invasive species affect the ecosystem and humans.