Invasive Species Competition

Invasive species are new to the earth and pose threats to many lives and the environment. They are knows as Alien Species because to many of us they are unknown. I chose five different types of Invasive Species particularly from South America and most of them that I found were from Brazil. I named five different criteria to specify each species such as: Organism name, description, areas found in, general impacts and geographical range.
The following name of the species are shown below along with the assessment with the criteria:

1. Scientific name: Acacia longifolia  
    Organism type: Tree or shrub
    Description: Small tree, bushy shrub, thin, size varies from 5-20 cm
    Areas found in:  Coast land, grasslands, shrub lands
    General impacts: Reduction in bio-diversity, changes in ecosystem and in habitats
    Geographical range: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, India, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Java, Myanmar, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka

2. Scientific name: Acacia melanoxylon
    Organism type: Tree
    Description: Evergreen tree, 8-15 m, straight trunk, heavy branches
    Areas found in:  Coast land, agricultural areas, natural forests, grasslands, planted forests, shrub lands,    estuarine habitats, urban areas, wetlands
    General impacts: Replaces non-native tree vegetation (e.x. grassland), invades the understorey of relatively open pine and eucalypt plantations. They block water flow in river/streams if the tree falls.
    Geographical range: Africa, Asia, Europe, India ocean, Pacific ocean, South America, United States

3. Scientific name: Acanthus mollis
    Organism type: Herb
    Description: Perennial herb, upright hairless stems (one metre), leaves grow upto 50 cm.
    Areas found in:  Coast land, riparian zones, natural forests
    General impacts: They form dense infestations under forest canopies. This supresses the growth and regeneration of native plant species.
    Geographical range: Natural ecosystems in Australia and has spread to several other states.

4. Scientific name: Achatina fulica
    Organism type: Mollusc
    Description: Narrow, conical shell which has a reddish-brown coloured, yellowish vertical markings, light-coffee is the common colour, adults are 20 cm long and their average weight is 32 g.
    Areas found in:  Coast land,agricultural areas, natural forests, planted forests, shrublands, urban areas, wetlands
    General impacts: damages tropical agriculture where there is loss of crop yield caused by herbivory, spread of diseases through transmissions of plant pathogens.
    Geographical range: Africa, United States, Asia, Pacific areas, Brazil

5. Scientific name: Aedes aegypti
    Organism type: Insect
    Description: Female mosquito that relies on human blood and passes on her virus through the skin
    Areas found in:  tropic, suburban, urban, subtropic
    General impacts: Causes yellow fever through transformation of viral blood from person to person. It is responsible for yellow fever virus and dengue virus
    Geographical range: Asia, Europe, United States, South America, Australia and Africa

It is easy to eliminate any specie based on one criteria where it is weak at. It would be easy to eliminate Acacia longifolia first because it is similar to Acacia melanoxylon and it is not found in many areas as well as it does not have as strong impacts as Acacia melanoxylon has. Achatina fulica and Aedes aegypti are very competitive because Achatina strongly effects the agriculture and Aedes has a tremendous effect on the human population. They both are widespread and it is very difficult to try to figure out which one is the most dangerous invasive specie.