Dispersal Patterns Key to Invasive Species' Success

Scientists at Duke University have recently done extensive research on the Allee effect and how it can be applied to bacteria in the human body. The Allee effect is the effect that a larger/more dense population of a species will help it establish itself in a new environment easier. The concept of the Allee effect was first brought to the scientist's attention back in mid-1800s to the mid-1900s when a farmer released 24 grey rabbits in his community in Australia. By 1950 there were 600 million rabbits in Australia. Scientists explain this phenomenon with the Allee effect. When the rabbits were released, they were released together as a dense group. Since the rabbits were in a dense group, the Allee effect helped them establish them in their environment and their population grew rapidly. Scientists have now used this theory and tested it with E. coli. Researchers at Duke discovered that when a more dense population of E.Coli were exposed to a harmful toxin, the more the bacteria produced an anti-toxin which saved their population. This relates to humans and bacteria growth in the human body. A large problem today has been the overuse of antibiotics, which destroys the body's natural defense to harmful bacteria. When the defense is destroyed, so is the Allee effect and when the Allee effect is destroyed then the bacteria may reproduce at a very rapid rate.

Themes of Natural Science:

1. Science is Credible: The scientists as Duke have provided credible and reasonable evidence for their findings.
2. Science is based on evidence: The scientists have provided collective evidence from research projects.
3. Role of motivation and curiosity: The research was done off curiosity from a previous phenomenon of the Allee effect back in the 1900s.

Link to Article: http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2014/01/20/dispersal_patterns_key_to_invasive_species_success.html