Question

Describe the economic/environmental "cost" to society associated with plant invasion in the ecosystem (recently renovated roadside along a remote rural highway)  Use the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment to help you describe the non-monetary "cost" and use your knowledge about the valuation of ecosystem services to discuss how we can calculate a monetary cost (in dollars) of an invasion. Plan to discuss economic/environmental costs and not control costs throughout this section.

Answer 1

Plant invasion is one of the  most severe threat to biodiversity after habitat fragmentation. Invasive species , also called allien species , threatens ecosystems, habitats or species with socio-cultural, economic and/or environmental harm, and harm to human health.

Plant invasion is now increasingly being recognized as global problem and various continents are adversely affected, but at differential scale. Transport, colonization, establishment and landscape spread may be different steps in success of invasive plants and each and every step is checked through several ecological attributes.

Further, several ecological attribute and hypothesis (enemy release, novel weapon, empty niche, evolution of increased competitive ability etc.) were proposed pertaining to success of invasive plant species.

However, single theory will not be able to account for invasion success among all environments as it may vary spatially and temporally. Therefore, in order to formulate a sustainable management plan for invasive plants, it is necessary to develop a synoptic view of the dynamic processes involved in the invasion process.

Moreover, invasive species can act synergistically with other elements of global change, including land-use change, climate change, increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen deposition. Henceforth, a unified framework for biological invasions that reconciles and integrates the key features of the most commonly used invasion frame-works into a single conceptual model that can be applied to all human-mediated invasions.

The objective of the MA was to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contribution to human well-being.

The MA is intended to be used:

■ to identify priorities for action;

■ as a benchmark for future assessments;

■ as a framework and source of tools for assessment, planning, and management;

■ to gain foresight concerning the consequences of decisions affecting ecosystems;

■ to identify response options to achieve human development and sustainability goals;

■ to help build individual and institutional capacity to undertake integrated ecosystem assessments and act on the findings; and

■ to guide future research

Ecosystem valuation is an economic process which assigns a value (either monetary, biophysical, or other) to an ecosystem and/or its ecosystem services. ... However, such valuations are estimates, and involve the inherent quantitative uncertainty and philosophical debate of evaluating a range non-market costs and benefits.

Putting a price on nature may seem like an impossible task, but economists believe that finding a way to calculate the value of natural resources is crucial when it comes to deciding whether our use of a resource is sustainable.

The importance of calculating values on the margin is also illustrated by the flaws of Robert Costanza and coauthors’ well-known 1997 paper in Nature on the value of the world’s ecosystem services. They assembled a set of estimates for the value of certain types of ecosystems in certain places. They then took these time- and place-specific estimates of value and extrapolated them to all areas of similar ecosystems around the globe. This procedure produced an estimate of about $33 trillion for the value of the world’s natural capital and ecosystem services.