White guys and aliens

Dandelions — a ubiquitous European invasive in North America

“An invasive species is defined as a species that is: 1) non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and, 2) whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.”

- USDA legal definition

“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

- Aldo Leopold

In a geological time frame there is little meaning to the terms alien or invasive. The vast majority of species on Earth have some degree of vicariance, i.e., mobility through time and space. Our perspective on species is often limited by our four score lifespan and our flawed concept of what constitutes an intact ecosystem. The sciences of ecology and evolutionary biology have largely been written by white boys that speak the King’s English. These founders believed that species and ecosystems changed only very slowly over relatively long time frames. Their concepts of alien and invasive species as dictated by this absurd notion have hindered science for decades.

Since the late 20th century the dominance of these fields by relatively comfortable white males from England and the US has begun to crumble. This change has resulted in new perspectives on the definitions of ecosystem form and function…