Ecological Mirages: The Perfect Bio-Invasion

ALEJANDRO BORTOLUS

Congreso; 1st Symposium on Coastal Ecosystems and Global Change; 2021

The massive human exploration and expansion across all continents and oceanstriggered one of the latest and most significant movement and exchange of speciesfrom one region to another. Over the past centuries people have transported anincreasing number of species across their natural biogeographic barriers, regardlessof their natural capability for long-range dispersion. Some of these species manage tothrive across the new regions and become invasive, affecting patterns and processesin Nature that are critically linked to human welfare. Although there is generalagreement that the best action against invasive species is to prevent them fromarriving, settling and thrive, I will focus on a particular set of events that areimpossible to foresee and, therefore, impossible to prevent and solve. Events that,without we even noticed, change our perception of Nature, its landscapes andseascapes, and the way we study and value them. Far from being apocalyptic, myanalysis aims to warn about the existence of this problem in a constructive way and topropose a reflection on its causes in order to improve our perception of Nature as wellas the methods we use to study and value it