Invasive plant species and how they apply to the spread of Covid-19.

To understand the link between invasive species, and the covid-19 infection and spread worldwide. We first have to discuss how covid-19 is seen as a biological component in this blog. Many scientists believe that viruses can be regarded as ‘alive’ and ‘biological’. So when it comes to infection control, many of the same ways we control invasive plants in plant ecology can also be applied to viral infections and spread.

This is because viruses are not that different from invasive plants, the covid-19 virus was able to adapt and change hosts (believed to be from bats to humans but not certain), and doing so it allowed more space for itself to grow. Even now, it still thrives over the constant quick adaptation to our vaccination efforts and infection control policies by evolving into new variants that are able to capture more realized niches, for example, some variants are airborne while others aren’t.

This is quite similar to invasive species, especially invasive plant species because they use similar tactics to dominate habitats that are not capable of controlling their growth. One example is the Japanese knotweed, which is able to use and exploit the resources of temperate habitats that have never been exposed to the plant species before, so there’s not much ‘immunity’ or resistance for this invasive species to grow. To counter such measures, scientists demanded that importing services must have a more thorough screening for any pathogens or insects that live on these plants, to which local plants and animals have no immunity against.

The argument made by ecologists specializing in invasive species in response to covid-19 is to compare it to invasive species, whether plants or animals, however; plants are much easier to monitor as they are stationary for the most part. Since the efforts made to minimize invasive species seem to be somewhat working, why would it not work for covid-19 and viral infections in general if they are also viewed as a biological vector?

References:

Does covid-19 change our perception of ‘invasive species’? Property Care. (2020, June 25). Retrieved March 5, 2022, from https://www.property-care.org/does-covid-19-change-our-perception-of-invasive-species/