Hello, I'm Dana Taylor, and this is a special episode of USA Today's The Exert.

Across the planet, the actions of humans are creating novel ecosystems, which, according to the BBC, have been dubbed Frego Systems by the daughter of the professor of ecology.

Freego systems are places where unfamiliar species mix with native species in unexpected ways.

Research into the Hawaiian island, Oahu's lush landscape demonstrates

how the actions of humans have radically changed the natural world. What do these emerging

ecosystems tell us about both the resilience and fragility of life on Earth? Here to discuss

humble ecosystems is Corey Tarwater, an ecologist

at the University of Wyoming, who's been researching Oahu's ecosystems for more than a decade.

Thanks for joining me, Corey.

Thank you for having me.

Oahu is filled with non-native plants and animals. Broadly, what are the hallmarks of novel ecosystems?

Well, it's a couple different things. One, you already hit the nail on the head. You have a mix

of native and non-native species in an area that have never been seen before. And this is caused by

humans. And so when we think about novel ecosystems, we're not saying that in Earth's history,

that there weren't new environments, right? We certainly had disturbance. We certainly had new species.

But what makes novel ecosystems different is that they're caused by humans and then it's happening

really rapidly. So you have the set of native and non-native species found this environment

together that have never been together before.

They're self-sustaining, you know, we don't aim management to maintain these communities.

And we also, these communities can't go back to what they were before.

So they really cross this sort of threshold in which we can't go back to the historic way that they used to be.

Corey, take us to Hawaii. How much of

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