How do Invasive Species Impact Wetlands?
Invasive species thrive in new habitats because they generally lack predators and other natural controls, they have reproductive adaptations which allow them to disperse successfully, they can tolerate and adapt to a variety of environmental conditions and they establish self-sustaining populations. Invasive species can threaten the diversity or abundance of native species and the ecological stability of the whole habitat. Invasive species displace native species by outcompeting natives for breeding sites, prey and other needed resources. They disrupt food webs, degrade habitats and alter biodiversity. Wetland habitats are very productive and support a large number of threatened and endangered species, unfortunately, the habitat that these species rely on is being altered and destroyed by invasive species.
