Devil's River Minnow - Effects of Invasive Species

Effects of Invasive Species

An additional factor contributing to the status of the Devils River Minnow is the introduction of foreign species. Some introduced tropical and game species now compete with the Devils River Minnow for food and spatial resources. Several nonnative species of catfish, cichlids, and bass have begun to reduce the minnow species’ numbers by feeding on both the minnows themselves and their main diet of algae and microorganisms. Loricariid catfish in particular have established large populations in the Texan habitats of the Devils River Minnow and are steadily consuming most of the available food. Largemouth bass also prey on the species’ juveniles during winter months, therefore reducing the amount of reproductively mature individuals. With the number of breeding individuals dwindling, the population is unable to replenish every season, leading to an even more rapid decline. The abundance of the Devils River Minnow tends to fluctuate in accordance with the populations of their competitive and predator species . The Devils River Minnow population is visibly diminishing, but conservation efforts are being implemented in order to curtail this decline.

Read more about this topic:  Devil's River Minnow

Famous quotes containing the words effects of, effects, invasive and/or species:

    Virtues are not emotions. Emotions are movements of appetite, virtues dispositions of appetite towards movement. Moreover emotions can be good or bad, reasonable or unreasonable; whereas virtues dispose us only to good. Emotions arise in the appetite and are brought into conformity with reason; virtues are effects of reason achieving themselves in reasonable movements of the appetites. Balanced emotions are virtue’s effect, not its substance.
    Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)

    Each of us, even the lowliest and most insignificant among us, was uprooted from his innermost existence by the almost constant volcanic upheavals visited upon our European soil and, as one of countless human beings, I can’t claim any special place for myself except that, as an Austrian, a Jew, writer, humanist and pacifist, I have always been precisely in those places where the effects of the thrusts were most violent.
    Stefan Zweig (18811942)

    The frequency of personal questions grows in direct proportion to your increasing girth. . . . No one would ask a man such a personally invasive question as “Is your wife having natural childbirth or is she planning to be knocked out?” But someone might ask that of you. No matter how much you wish for privacy, your pregnancy is a public event to which everyone feels invited.
    Jean Marzollo (20th century)

    Prostitution is the most hideous of the afflictions produced by the unequal distribution of the world’s goods; this infamy stigmatizes the human species and bears witness against the social organization far more than does crime.
    Flora Tristan (1803–1844)