Exotic species often have a negative impression for most people because they are considered invasive species. Most people think, “as species invades, the ecosystem collapses, species go extinct, and complexity and diversity are replaced with a monotonous and weedy landscape dominated by invaders” (97). However, that is only some of the cases for exotic species. In many cases, exotic species are not necessary invasive. They can help native species as well. Invasive species can flourish to create a habitat for natives or become their food source. They sometimes help endangered species to grow in number. The problem is that most people and the government associate exotic species with invasive species, and try to destroy them as a conservation effort. However, removing invasive species is not feasible because seeds can survive for decades and target species can return after they had been killed (101). They need to realize the benefits of invasive species and to reduce their effort to remove exotic species.
One important benefit that exotic species can do to an ecosystem is to increase its diversity. Extinction is often outnumbered by invasion, where the types of species in an ecosystem actually increased. Also, some exotic species takes up the empty niches of the ecosystem, which makes the ecosystem more complete and balance. As a result, we should only deal with exotic species that are causing problems, and introduce the ones we want in order help develop a well-balanced ecosystem (108). We should forget about native and non-native categories when evaluating an ecosystem as long as the ecosystem is better off in terms of its functions. Also, we will embrace new species and invasive species as native species as time moves on and as generation passes. The line between native and non-native species changes as time changes. As a result, a novel ecosystem is a great and less confusing system to implement.
A novel ecosystem is “new, human influenced combinations of species that can function as well or better than native ecosystems and provide for humans with ecosystem services of various kinds – from water filtration and carbon sequestration to habitat for rare species” (112). In most cases, exotic species are initially invasive when introduced, but they will behave over time (116). When exotic species grow in number, they become a big part of the environment. Native species learn to adapt to new species by building resistance (118). As a result, exotic species are not invasive if they are given some time. Exotic species-dominated ecosystems function better than native forests due to higher biodiversity and more balance when niches are filled. Therefore, we should not remove exotic species. We should to let the exotic and native species work things out on their own.
The fact that humans are part of nature, we cannot confine our idea of nature to a time before human arrived. Nature should be when the environment is on its own processes that are not under human control instead of a list of things that were there years ago without human intervention. It is important that we let ecosystems to balance themselves on their own against exotic species. We should introduce species to an ecosystem planning that they will benefit the ecosystems, and leave them to balance through natural selection. That way, a novel ecosystem is truly natural to let all niches to be filled for maximum completeness.
