Background Information

         An ecosystem is a place where native plants and animals live in and interact with the elements around them. There are about six different ecosystems in Colorado and each ecosystem has different animals in it. Colorado is mostly a mountain environment. In the forest there are trees, mushrooms, beetles, bears, elks, and birds. Tundra, Alpine Tundra, Subalpine Tundra are all ecosystems in Colorado Springs.

         A food web is a chain of what plants or animals eat what. The primary producers have the most plants because everything relies on them. This also means that the smaller bugs repopulate faster. Another thing that this means is that the animals that eat those bugs can repopulate too. Energy flows through the food chain depending on what the animals or bugs eat. I say this because plants get their energy from the sun, and the animals that eat those plants get the plants energy. Also, the animals that eat those animals get those animals energy and more.

         An invasive species is an animal or plant that comes unnaturally into a habitat, therefore, causing damage to other animals or plants, endangering them and over populating, but they can also help the habitat thrive. When an invasive species first appears in a new place, it will need to eat the animals and plants that lived there previously. By eating too much of a native species that wasn’t used to being eaten so much, they would soon disappear and there would be to many of that one animal, they wouldn’t have anything to eat and the whole ecosystem would collapse. But as I was saying, not all new species harm the environment. For example, they reintroduced wolves into Yellow Stone National Park, and the park soon began to flourish.

         The emerald ash borer is an invasive species to Colorado. It is a shiny green bug about the size of a penny. It has small wings with antennas above and between its eyes. This little bug first originated from Asia and China, where it wasn’t really a problem due to all the current ash trees and their immunity to the bug. One other animal that eats the EAB is a wasp. If we release more wasps at the end of the winter, it would help solve our problem. The bug eats ash trees.

 

Impacts of the EAB

         If the EAB came into the ecosystem, then our ecosystem would be greatly affected because it would kill the things other things eat. Also, it would grow because the animals or plants that eat those things would come into our ecosystem. The ripple effect is where something comes into our ecosystem and effects things which effects more things.

         An invasive species would impact the ecosystem because the animals that eat the plants that the invasive species are eating the animals start to die and more invasive species will come in. same with the EAB. I say this because the EAB eats the ash trees and the ash trees crash into the animal’s food source which kills the animals slowly but surely. The beetle boom in black forest would greatly help our ecosystem because it would kill the EAB or we could put the

 

 

Action plan

         To prevent the EAB from coming into our ecosystem you have to get a professional to get rid of the ash trees and their seeds. Next step you would have to prevent transporting fire wood so that the EAB wouldn’t spread. After that you would have transport the ash trees out of the state. Lastly, you could find a way to get poison that doesn’t affect the trees but they effect the EAB. Or we could find an insecticide that could come into our ecosystem and it doesn’t affect our ecosystem but it effects the EAB. Also, so that it is poisonous to the EAB so that they will run out of our ecosystem slowly but surely.