Assault On My Mind- thoughts and academia
Migration is a natural behavior and component of the life cycle of many species of mobile organisms, not limited to animals and the human species, though the latter is the best known type.
There are parallels, convergent and divergent paths both in Migration and Ecology, bringing into question the possibilities of a stronger union or a cohesive alliance in the ecosystem and society in harmony as well as the cognitive dissonance it creates through the invasive alien nature of both.
Spreading of Botanical species by natural and unnatural dispersion, holds fascination and exists in some layered form, surfacing and disappearing in its trajectory, travelling side by side with Migration in my thought process currently.
To try find patterns or connections of any kind with Alien Invasive Species spread and migration of people from one area to another seems an audacious exercise. There are cognitive and physical elements in both studies as well as harmony and discordance in its behavior and occurrence.
Migration happens as a consequence of widespread expansion of human infrastructures and activities, habitat alteration, direct persecution/war, climate change/famine and routes vary in habitat, landscape, and atmospheric characteristics, as well as resource availability and the prevalence of threats, and all these influence migratory behavior and survival rates.
Space and time together represent one of the fundamental axes that shape ecological systems. In turn these two axes have shaped many of the fundamental questions in ecology including how spatial and temporal variation in the environment control species' distributions, and how such environmental variation affects population dynamics and structures diverse communities. Such questions highlight that temporal and spatial ecology are intricately intertwined with Human Migration.
The current theoretical models of migration flows: a “spatial” dimension, which describes pushes and pulls in origin and destination countries; a “temporal” dimension, which explains why migration streams begin and either grow or dissipate; and a “volitional” and more with these conflicted times - "coerced/ involuntary" dimension, which explains at the individual level how migrants respond to these forces and to the changing context.
Another area that keeps surfacing through this process is the language we use in description.
For example the words - Immigrant and Expatriate. How do we choose between these two words in describing a person alien to a place? What influences us to choose one over the other? One sports a negative connotation while the other, a positive.
In the context of Biodiversity and Ecology, can an ' Alien Invasive Species' in some instances contribute to rejuvenating an ecosystem, further strengthening it?
Can an alien plant species be of ecological/economic use that benefits?
It is a fact that strengthening the gene pool, the benefit that mixed-race folks have is Greater Genetic Variety.
(Photo - Fisherman and Me. Parakrama Samudraya)
Love your musings Layla! I am personally very thankful that I come from a diverse, rich, genetic pool as a result of time, space, migrations, colonialism, history, whatever! The more we understand how living organisms, including humans, moved in the past, the less entrenched we can become in concepts like genetic purity and superiority. Hitler could have been stopped with a genetic analysis which would have revealed the fallacy of his maniacal assumptions!
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