Week 11 Briefing: Treaties broken

The garlic mustard case — an invasive plant degrading a native mycorrhizal mutualism as a side effect of establishing itself.

Stained arbuscular mycorrhizal structures inside a plant root, with a 50 micrometre scale bar.

Rajarshi Rit · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Case file 11

Case file 11
Date
3 May 2027
Metaphor
Treaties broken — an established arrangement destroyed by an outside actor
Phenomenon
Invasive plants disrupting native mycorrhizal mutualisms via allelochemicals — the case of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Before the session

Read the assigned case material on garlic mustard invasion. Bring a view on whether “broken treaty” requires an original two-party agreement, and whether this case actually has one.

In the session

Trace the chain: invader arrives, produces compound, native fungi suppressed, native plants lose a nutrient partner, invader gains ground. Identify which link in that chain is best supported and which is weakest.

Afterwards

Compare this week’s one-directional case against week 6’s double agent — one phenomenon has a clear external saboteur, the other doesn’t.

The spec

What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.

Teaching team