[MCN] Pine beetle. Invader? Invited guest?

[Lance Olsen]

Places once chilly enough to kill lots of pine 
beetles have been warming up. Many formerly 
too-chilly places started flashing signs that 
they'd become move-in-ready. The beetles read the 
sign.

The beetle hasn't been "invading." It's just been invited in.

There's a lot of this going on, not just beetles, 
not just insects, and the invader label comes 
into play many times in reportage about this or 
that newcomer plant or animal.

None of which means invader or invasive doesn't 
have a place, but the media will do everybody a 
favor with parsing the language of invasive 
species. Invited guest is at least sometimes the 
better descriptor, but the climate 
immigrant/refugee label deserves a place too.

Is the spruce "invading" the tundra as the Arctic 
heats up? Is the bass "invading" higher and 
higher elevation flow along the Yellowstone as 
the river takes on heat? 
======================================================================
"Climate change is not a new topic in biologyŠ 
Observations of range shifts in parallel with 
climate change Š date back to the mid-1700s."

Parmesan, Camille. Ecological and Evolutionary 
Responses to Recent Climate Change. The Annual 
Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 
2006. 37:637-69. First published online as a 
Review in Advance on August 24, 2006 



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