Invasive Non-Indigenous Species - Essay Example

Buffelgrass is drought resistant so thrived in its native countries including Africa. The grass will withstand heavy grazing and so was introduced for this purpose so the conversion of forest, homogenous grassland, and savanna to pasture for grazing created the ideal environment for this hardy grass to grow. However, the problem lies in that this invasive grass has spread from cultivated areas to natural ecosystems at an alarming rate as it will grow in all soil types and including sandy and stony soils.

Buffelgrass grows densely and so crowds out native plants of similar size and due to its ability to resist drought will remain dense even in dry years. It attacks native plants by its ability to win the competition for natural resources such as water, space, and soil nutrients to prevent homogenous plants from maturing and germinating and secondly, it is highly flammable but resistant to fire, once a grass fire has occurred it is not unusual that only the Bufflegrass grows back. The Sonoran Desert evolved without fire as an ecological factor and most of its plants cannot tolerate it.

The Bufflegrass populations in Saguaro National Park have quadrupled in size between 2002 and 2006 despite the outbreaks of several vastly spread fires (Bean & Betancourt, 2006). The economic factor is that with the increased risk of fires utility infrastructures are threatened, property may decrease in value as areas become known for fire hazards, insurance rates rise not to mention the cost to governments in having to find means of managing the invasive grass.