York U prof hails budget for national strategy to deal with problem

TORONTO, March 8, 2005 -- York University biology professor Norman Yan is applauding the federal government’s recent announcement of $85 million in new funds to develop a national strategy on invasive species.

“This major financial commitment shows that the study of invasive species is finally getting the attention it deserves at the highest levels,” Yan says. “We have known for years about how pollution, habitat alteration and resource harvesting affect ecosystems, and we have policies, systems and agencies to address these issues. It is only recently that the introduction of invasive species has been identified as the fourth major impact humans can have on the environment.” 

 

While only a small proportion of these invasive species is likely to be causing damage to the eco-system, a significant number are threatening our surface waters, forests and farms. Canadians might be surprised to hear that the financial impact of invasive species on our economy has been estimated as high as $18- to $30-billion per year.

  

Yan’s special focus, the spiny water flea, is only one of over 1,400 identified non-indigenous species that have established themselves in Canada’s lands and waters -- often through ballast-transfer from ocean-going freighters since the St. Lawrence Seaway was built in 1959.

 

Countless numbers of these microscopic fleas have recently invaded the Great Lakes and are now spreading inland, where their proliferation has begun to cause biological problems in Ontario’s surface waters. Yan’s ground-breaking study of the water flea’s impact on Harp Lake, a tiny lake in central Ontario, is getting international acclaim in scientific circles and is one of many studies which have spurred the federal government to make its crucial promise to address invasive species in February’s budget.

 

York University is taking a lead role in driving interdisciplinary research into this phenomenon. Among other initiatives, in November 2004 the York Centre for International and Security Studies sponsored a workshop entitled “Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Problems Caused by Invasive Species.”   

 

“We’re not going to solve these problems with science alone,” says Yan, referring to York’s reputation for interdisciplinary research. “There are issues related to governance, the interplay of agencies, economics, international law, trade -- all sorts of things -- that must be considered as well if we are to protect our vulnerable ecosystems and habitats.”

 

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city.  The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 180,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 21 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges.

 

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For further information, please contact: 

Jeff Ball, Media Relations Department, York University, 416-736-2100 x 22086, jball@yorku.ca