Abstract
Bioinvasions occurred in the past as they do in the present, raising a set of ecological, economic, cultural and scientific changes. This paper focuses on how people dealt with and overcame the introduction and spread of the brown soft scale (Coccus hesperidum) in the Azorean orange groves in the 1840s–1860s. It describes the difficulties in the detection and the identification of the causal agent, the underestimation of the impacts in the early moments, the slow response and the limitations on methods of control. This is the earliest historical case of a plant pest documented in the Azores archipelago and the first that led to regulations concerning preventive measures and control. Research results are discussed in the framework of the global transfer of living organisms, rethinking Crosby’s original model of “Europeanizing” the colonial and overseas territories in the context of the nineteenth century empires. They highlight the relevance of understanding local dynamics, which reconsider the relationship between the center and the periphery.
Highlights
Fighting against live organisms that cause great economic and environmental harm to an area outside their natural range, those called invasive species, is a current scientific and management challenge all over the world
The historical exploitation of citrus species developed in many different geographies, contributing to the economies of European countries (e.g., Portugal, Spain) as it did to the North American states of Florida and California, Brazil and even India, where the citron (Citrus medica L.) was sanctified and consecrated to the elephant-headed Ganesh, god of knowledge and wisdom (Scora 1975)
To Crosby’s Green Imperialism paradigm, it updates and diversifies the list of episodes of successes and failures in ecological mastery of nature, giving relevance to small-scale dynamics in reframing the original model and its narratives about the center and periphery
Summary
Fighting against live organisms that cause great economic and environmental harm to an area outside their natural range, those called invasive species, is a current scientific and management challenge all over the world. The number of introduced species is increasing steadily (Keller et al 2011), and climate change creates new natural opportunities and worsens problems for society in this dimension as well (Hellmann et al 2008; Ziska et al 2011). The literature about the historical and social perspectives on introductions and invasions has multiplied in the last few decades, demanding interdisciplinarity (Vaz et al 2017). The transfer of live organisms through human agency has been happening for a long time, the technological changes of the first decades of the nineteenth century increased the trade of food and agricultural products and the movement of people across borders. Studies of the consequences of past introductions are part of late modern and contemporary history, mainly from the mid-1800s to the present, with Oidium tuckeri (1850s and onward) and the grape phylloxera (1860s and onward) as typical examples
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