An ecosystem connects all the living and non-living components in a balanced harmony. A cycle of producers, consumers, and decomposers maintain this system’s existence. When organisms living in the habitats face drastic climate shifts, some are unable to adapt and die off. The choice for migration no longer becomes feasible. Conservationists now debate the decision to implant these distressed organisms, and the positive and negative effects on the ecosystems.
Usually these climate shifts can be traced back to human development, dating back as early as the Pleistocene extinction. The going concerns with these species reside in their inability to live outside their preferred temperature range and precipitation pattern. Some species do not have high “thresholds of tolerance beyond which they do not survive or cannot successfully reproduce” (Marris). Human interference indeed does disrupt the existing ecosystem and some species do not adapt as well as other.
While a butterfly may “move more easily across a landscape than can a plant” (Marris), butterflies lay their eggs of a selected species of plants and rely on the plants. Then there are plants that reproduce via “insect or bird pollinators” (Marris). The plants face extinction when their pollinators escape northward to avoid the heat. Marris presents assisted migration as a solution for this burgeoning problem.
Assisted migration describes the act of transplanting species into a similar ecosystem elsewhere. The goal is to preserve an endangered species in a similar habitat. One argument against this proposal state that “humanity accidentally creates an invasive species” because we do not know the exact “soil microbes or microclimatic conditions” (Marris) suited for the species involved. Test samples of the soil, plants, fungi, bacteria, and animals should be studied to source the food chain and inter-species dependency.
Connie Barlow, a preacher and committed environmentalist has replanted the T. taxifolia in North Carolina, which is not its native location. They studied the characteristics of this species and determined it was not a “hugely problematic invasive species” (Marris) because its seeds were not “dispersed by wind” (Marris). They calculated the risk and understood the plant’s growth limit. Ecologists like Jessica Hellman at Notre Dame University have broken down their observations on assisted migration in hopes to create a guide that encourages and educates readers to explore assisted migration in their own communities. One of University of Ontario’s Ph.D students, Caroline Williams have gathered to form a team to identify the Garry Oak and its potential migration destinations. In the process of discovering what organisms are linked to the Garry Oak, she has found the swallowtails and duskywinged skippers. Using her method of researching native species and related organisms, she has discovered a scientific process for assisted migration. One could simply research the land and an ecosystem’s properties, how far its effects are, and can it adapt. Assisted migration currently exists and we can observe how ecosystems embrace change in species, and steps to control it.
