Why do Invasive Species Often Outcompete Native Species?

 Invasive species outcompeting native species is initially counterintuitive. After all, the native species evolved for that environment and the invasive species (often) did not. Yet it’s often the case that invasive species cause a rapid decline in, and even extinction of, the natives.

 

This reasoning for its counter-intuitiveness provides the answer: to survive in its non-native environment, the invasive species must be hardy and adaptable. After all, think of the most successful invasive species: foxes, cats, rats, humans etc. They don’t outcompete natives because they’re better in that environment but because they adapt their lives to suite the environment they’re in.

 

So it’s not that invasive species are better than natives species, it’s just that adaptive species can adapt to their non-native environments, or non-adaptable natives can’t adapt against their non-native competition. That’s why non-adaptable invasive species won’t outcompete the natives (hence we never see this happen).

 

Yet another possibility is that, sometimes, an invasive species colonises an environment practically identical to the one it evolved for, only the new one is easier to survive in. Still, this doesn’t mean the invasive species is better adapted than the natives. Rather, evolving to survive a harder environment makes surviving in easy ones a piece of cake.

 

Take, for example, grey vs. red squirrels in the UK. The red squirrel has no native competition. Yet when the grey squirrel evolved in America, it needed robust adaptations (strength, size, aggression) to compete. The greys need not adapt to survive whereas reds do need to adapt to survive: there’s no surprise why the non-native grey squirrels are doing better.

Critique: Tidelands (Netflix Series)

*****SPOILERS*****

 

This show was a lot of fun and the videography was stunning. I’ve never watched anything that combines these two factors so vividly. That alone made ‘Tidelands’ worth the watch.

 

Cal, after leaving prison, gets mixed up with the affairs of the Tidelanders (half-human, half-siren hippies) and the business of her brother Augie. (When I first wrote his name down I spelt it ‘Orgy’. A mistake to be sure but considering all the sex in the show...)

            The Tidelanders communally live in the swamp and are considered dirty by the rest of the town. The image probably isn’t helped by them having sex everywhere, all the time. (Bearing in mind no one knows which siren is their mother, they could be shagging their siblings. Yet apparently this isn’t something to be worried about?) What the town doesn’t know is that the Tidelanders can breathe underwater and captivate people with their screams.

            Augie sells drugs supplied by the Tidelanders. The Madam distributes the profits unfairly among her Tidelander subjects so she can buy the relics needed to summon the sirens. Add to the mix a new gang in town, there’s a lot of chaos on the human side of things, too.

            This mess is made more complicated when Corey, a young police officer, tries to figure out what’s going on. He is really cute. Visually, yes, but his character, his behaviour and mind, are cute. He’s close to Cal and is worried for her safety. He doesn’t appear to have a knight-in-shining-armour complex but he’s genuinely concerned for his friend. (Well, they shag, but they care as friends nonetheless.)

 

Cal and Augie’s mum is a… well, insert any awful expletive and you won’t be wrong.

Her mum wants her dead. She even tries to have Cal drowned! She even framed Cal for the death of her father (who Cal adored)! This meant Cal grew up in prison with a mother that wouldn’t even visit her. Utterly cruel. The show is full of criminals and (successful) murderers but Cal’s mum is the one I want taken care of the most.

But of course we discover that Cal is a Tidelander, meaning she has a siren mother, not a human one. Augie’s mum knew this and yet she thought Cal could be drowned? That was odd. Especially as she’s sleeping with a Tidelander herself.

 

The Madam keeps a seer to find the locations of the relics.

The seer is really old so I thought she was a full-human (Tidelanders don’t age). Visions get stronger the longer the seer’s been away from water. But water, it turns out, heals the Tidelanders and keeps them young (old age is just damaged cells that don’t work so well anymore, after all). This was why the seer looks like a shrivelled raisin.

Cal rescues the seer and puts her into the ocean, turning the old woman into a young Tidelander. Yet the ocean doesn’t heal her stab wound? This was odd. Maybe the mechanics of the water-healing have more nuances than I thought but without any sort of explanation it just looks like an oversight that’s convenient for the plot.

 

Cal has a connection with one Tidelander in particular: Dylan.

The Madam sends Dylan to seduce Cal. Cal dismisses him because he lives in a swamp with mosquitoes. Dylan replies with, “I don’t mind being sucked.” Hilarious! It was in that moment that humour sparked in the show.

Dylan jokes about Corey only lasting twenty seconds and Cal responds with something like at least Corey cares, at least it meant something. (That’s all well and good but you could have defended Corey’s endurance even a little bit.) Then straight after this, Cal and Dylan shag. It’s only in the missionary position, and lazy at that (hence boring compared to the rest of the sex in the show!) Surely you could have put more effort into it, Dylan!

 

Like I said before, the videography was cleverly done. Everything was clearly thought about in detail and, as a result, every shot was precise.

The title screen was genius (and thankfully short for a Netflix original!) We see a body rolling in the water. But for each episode, the camera rolls over a different part of the body. Such a creative way to bring something typically boring to life.

The most impressive example is when Cal has a bath. The camera goes vertically when she’s under water so the bath is on the left and the tiles are on the right. You’re sitting there expecting the water to flow out but you know it won’t because it’s your perspective that’s moved, not the world. So playing with our expectations of the world (i.e. gravity) and how it works had a massive impact.

This show has made me much more appreciative of the importance of perfect perspectives whilst filming. I wasn’t ignorant to this before but ‘Tidelanders’ did it so well that I think I’ll be more critical in the future.

 

All-in-all, this was a really enjoyable experience. The main actress was phenomenal and the mystery of the world really draws the audience in. I am impatient as I hope (and prematurely wait) for series two.

 

Critique: The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3) (Philip Pullman) 2/2

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Questions

The armoured bears are some of the more interesting things that came out of this series. Their culture and perspectives were well thought through.

            Thirty bears migrate south with Iorik. What we don’t know is whether only thirty decided to migrate or whether there were only thirty bears in total. If the latter was true, their gene pool is very limited.

When Will bumps into Iorik, the bear wants to see the Knife. Will says will only show it to one bear (Iorik), Iorik says that’s him, and then Will says ‘”I know.’” THEN WHY GO THROUGH THAT WHOLE CHARADE?

           

Gullivespians are tiny gnome-like creatures that accompany Lyra and Will on their travels.

Lyra lets the gullivespians sit on her shoulders. But gullivespians have poisonous spurs on their heels. Lyra’s moving and the tiny people are swinging their legs. How did they not prick Lyra?

King Ogunwe, one of Asriel’s commanders, says the gullivespians’ world has two conscious forms of life (including humans) unlike Lyra’s world of demons. Considering Lyra’s world has the armoured bears that show their intellect to be on par with humanity, it seems odd to say it doesn’t have two conscious forms of life.

 

The mystery of Mrs Coulter grows and grows.

Coulter says Asriel lied about wanting to destroy it but in reality preserve it. Where on Earth did she get that notion from? But then Asriel confirms it! There’s been no indication about this at all.

Mrs Coulter sneaks into the intention craft. In the past, Asriel says only someone from their world can drive it because demons need to hold a stick for it to work. Yet Coulter’s demon is flying around the cabin, not touching the stick. One could argue that it just needs a demon to start it but Asriel specifically said drive.

So Coulter knows Asriel’s true intentions despite Asriel showing no indication of what they are (just like how she somehow knew an invisible witch was watching her). Coulter can drive the intention craft without following the demon rules (just like how her demon can travel far away from her). Coulter just happens to know how to persuade Metatron to do what he wants (just like how she can command anything). Mrs Coulter is a mystery with no really explanations on the horizon. Considering she dies in this book, I doubt we’ll ever find out.

 

Here are some miscellaneous questions.

It’s stated that angels can’t touch flesh. Yet somehow, Coulter and Asriel can wrestle with Metatron and Balthamos can touch Gomez. This creates a contradiction that editing could have easily removed.

Mary was once a nun whose vow meant she could never love. But she wanted to feel love so she concluded that God doesn’t exist. Uh, that’s an awful argument. Disliking something in no way means it doesn’t exist: if anything, it proves its existence. Mary is a physicist so she clearly has a decent brain. A brain that shouldn’t reach stupid conclusions. You’re not Lyra, Mary! (Although as so many people in this series come to awful conclusions, perhaps it’s the author at fault.)

Father Gomez is sent by the Magisterium to kill Lyra. When he comes into the mulefa world, he decides the creatures are abominable and Satanic because they ride on wheels. Things are given bad labels by the Church if it goes against its teachings. Now, I find it hard to believe that the Magisterium has ever stated a view on a wheeled creature because they’ve never seen one before.

Before this, Gomez kills a tualapi (mortal enemies of the mulefa) and then they fee him. This is bizarre. Then because of this he knows he can control them. Um… what.

 

Convenient Plot

It’s stated that everyone’s death (a shadowy individual, as seen in the World of the Dead) is always with them.

But if this is the case, how could Lyra lie to hers? Those lies were necessary to the plot. Thus the fact that deaths are always with people puts the plot on shaky foundations.

The problem with deaths don’t end there. The characters only find out about deaths right before they need deaths to safely enter the World of the Dead. This was a bit convenient. Not just convenient for the plot but convenient for the author, too.

 

Unfortunately, book three contains countless examples of convenient plot points. It’s a shame because it robs from the joy and excitement of reading.

Asriel sends people out to find Will’s and Lyra’s demons. They happen to be in the most convenient place in his world. Then a bit later, Asriel goes into the abyss that appears in all worlds to find the demons… Well then the demons weren’t in Asriel’s world, or they moved without the author bothering to tell the reader. He should have chosen one or the other because having both in unnecessary and messy.

Will and Lyra bump into the crystal litter carrying the elderly Authority (who’s just an angel; ‘God’ was a ruse). All of his guards are gone and how Will and Lyra so conveniently got just where the plot needed them. Not impressed.

Lyra and Will being in love fixes the Dust problem. Come on, are you serious? How exactly does that work? The readers get detailed explanations about everything, even things that aren’t really important (I appreciate it all the same). So why do we get no explanation for something so important? It’s a bit of a cop out and entirely a disappointment.

 

Other

It would go amiss to not mention these miscellaneous points.

            The fingers of the angels were light and cool. Getting that description was good. What’s more interesting in that, whilst they’re made of light, they’re not hot (heat being a by-product of light). On cold days the sun’s light isn’t hot yet it’s still there (we can still see) so not-hot-light isn’t farfetched.

            After Asriel explains how to drive the intention machine to Mrs Coulter, she says, ‘”I see”’ then pushes out of it. That gave me the biggest laugh in this book.

            Lyra and Will really go at the kissing and then they bathed together. It was like reading about characters kissing in their late teens/early twenties, rather than kissing at twelve years-old (like Lyra and Will). So that was uncomfortable to read.

 

All the worlds and civilisation were so intriguing and discovering them all again was enjoyable. I’m afraid they alone bore the weight of His Dark Materials.