it could well be linked to lengths of generations, favoring shorter reproductive cycles.
Ah yes, I really hadn't thought about the connection of generation time, good point. In fact, as I considered this I realized how similar the global warming issue is to the invasive species issue.
These are some of the traits that can help predict whether a plant will be invasive (animals are similar, but I haven't studied invasive animals as extensively as I have plants)
- high reproductive rate
- short time to reproductive age
- rapid growth rate
- generalized niche requirements; ability to exploit new niches
- release from predation
- ability to extend growing season beyond natives
- produce novel interspecific competitive systems (ie. allelopathy, dense vegetative canopies)
- significant phenotypic variation
Invasion can also be thought of as a special case of succession, which usually proceeds in a slow, orderly and somewhat predictable fashion. However, disturbances change community structure in such a way as to disrupt this natural succession, which creates new niche opportunities that native plants often can't readily exploit. Also note that disruption of natural disturbance regimes is also a type of disturbance; suppression of fire, flooding, or ... freeze / thaw cycles can alter community structure. Global warming can definitely be thought of as a disturbance.
So my realization here is how similar global warming is to invasive species ecology and the same characteristics that predict invasiveness will be selected for by climate change. So what we are likely to see is an extinction event much like the K-T extinction where whole groups of organisms are eliminated and only a small subset make it through.
Another thing I realized ... I hate invasive species. When I see garlic mustard or spotted knapweed or common buckthorn growing along the road, I just want to stop and yank it all out. But I am wondering now if maybe its a good thing ... it may be the only plants we have left in 20 years
. Maybe kudzu will make it up here to Michigan (no maybe about it) and I won't have to mow my lawn or paint my house anymore; I can just let kudzu cover it all
Quite unsettling
HBD
Whoever calls me ignorant shares my own opinion. Sorrowfully and tacitly I recognize my ignorance, when I consider how much I lack of what my mind in its craving for knowledge is sighing for... I console myself with the consideration that this belongs to our common nature. - Francesco Petrarca
"Nothing is easier than to persuade people who want to be persuaded and already believe." - another Petrarca gem.
Ignorance is a most formidable opponent rivaled only by arrogance; but when the two join forces, one is all but invincible.