Question

Are Purple loosestrife affecting the lives of humans? If so, how.

Answer 1

Purple loosestrife has the ability to severely decrease biodiversity wherever it grows due to its ability to displace many native plants. This not only affects the native plants themselves, but also any animal species which feed, nest, or take cover in wetland plants; the purple loosestrife forms such dense thickets that it is impossible for these animals to enter or use them. These animals are also displaced, then, by the loosestrife. Many of these animals, mostly birds, are highly valued aesthetically, and their disappearance is noticed by humans. On the other hand, though, humans also tend to find the loosestrife aesthetically pleasing; it was introduced as a decorative plant. Still, the damaging effect that the loosestrife has on ecosystem biodiversity is visible, and thus the plant offends any human values of conservation for the sake of conservation, a dominant cultural paradigm, and so the loosestrife is considered detrimental.