Trait-Based Plant Community Assembly, Ecological Restoration, and the Biocontrol of Invasive Exotic Plant Species

Trait-Based Plant Community Assembly, Ecological Restoration, and the Biocontrol of Invasive Exotic Plant Species PDF Author: Hui Zhang
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889745937
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description

Trait-Based Plant Community Assembly, Ecological Restoration, and the Biocontrol of Invasive Exotic Plant Species

Trait-Based Plant Community Assembly, Ecological Restoration, and the Biocontrol of Invasive Exotic Plant Species PDF Author: Hui Zhang
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889745937
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description


Invasive Plant Ecology and Management

Invasive Plant Ecology and Management PDF Author: Thomas A. Monaco
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1845938119
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Bringing together ecology and management of invasive plants within natural and agricultural ecosystems, this book bridges the knowledge gap between the processes operating within ecosystems and the practices used to prevent, contain, control and eradicate invasive plant species. The book targets key processes that can be managed, the impact of invasive plants on these ecosystem processes and illustrates how adopting ecologically based principles can influence the ecosystem and lead to effective land management.

Invasive Plant Ecology

Invasive Plant Ecology PDF Author: Shibu Jose
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 143988126X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Invasion of non-native plant species, which has a significant impact on the earth’s ecosystems, has greatly increased in recent years due to expanding trade and transport among different countries. Understanding the ecological principles underlying the invasive process as well as the characteristics of the invasive plants is crucial for making good management decisions to address this problem. Invasive Plant Ecology includes chapters derived from presentations at conferences such as the World Congress of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO), as well as contributions from invited renowned authors. The chapters include both original research and syntheses of current knowledge on specific topics. Actions essential for coordinated approaches to curtail plant invasion include increasing awareness of the ecological impacts of alien plants and employing novel control strategies. This book provides a foundation in invasion ecology by examining ecological theories and case studies that explain plant invasions, their impacts, management strategies, and the ecological economics. The chapters describe ecological characteristics, mutualistic associations, microbial communities, and disturbance regimes that affect the spread of invasive plants. The book also covers spatial analysis and predictive modeling of invasive plants. The final chapters offer guidelines for ecological management and restoration of invaded areas and describe the economics of the invasive plant issue. This collection contains case studies from around the world, giving readers a real view of the extent of the invasive species issue along with real-world strategies. With its focus on the ecological aspects of plant invasion, this book provides an important reference for students, scientists, professionals, and policy makers who are involved in the study and management of alien invasive plants and ecosystems.

Diversity and Ecology of Invasive Plants

Diversity and Ecology of Invasive Plants PDF Author: Sudam Charan Sahu
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1839683511
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
This book, Diversity and Ecology of Invasive Plants, is a collection of reviewed and relevant research chapters, offering a comprehensive overview of recent developments in the field of invasive species biology. The book comprises chapters authored by various researchers and edited by experts active in the field of conservation of biodiversity. All chapters are complete in itself but united under a common topic. This publication aims at providing a thorough overview of the latest research efforts by international authors on diversity, distribution, and ecological consequences of invasive species and opens new possible research paths for further developments.

Determinants of Biotic Resistance to Invasion in Plant Community Assembly

Determinants of Biotic Resistance to Invasion in Plant Community Assembly PDF Author: Chaeho Byun
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
"Biotic resistance refers to the ability of species in a resident community to restrict invasion. Biotic resistance is central to our understanding of how a community recruits/repels new species. From a practical perspective, biotic resistance is relevant to the restoration of communities and/or the management of invasive species. Fundamental ecological mechanisms regulating biotic resistance are not fully understood. This research investigates determinants of biotic resistance to invasion. Its overall objectives were to identify the characteristics of species and communities making them more or less resistant to species invasion and to quantify the contribution of other biotic and abiotic factors to the regulation of biotic resistance. I hypothesized that (1) functional group identity of wetland species would be a good predictor of their biotic resistance, while species identity effect would be redundant within functional group; (2) mixtures of species would be more invasion resistant than monocultures; (3) abiotic constraints (flooding in this case) would influence biotic resistance both through direct effect on invaders and indirect effect on resident wetland species, and (4) propagule pressure of invading species would interact with wetland plant density to influence biotic resistance. I chose an introduced lineage of Phragmites australis as a model invasive species to test biotic resistance, but used emergent functional groups of wetland species based on trait similarity to facilitate generalizations to other species. I conducted a series of rigorous community assembly experiments both in pots and in wetland to simulate a situation where P. australis seeds land on bare soil along with other wetland species, a common occurrence in the field after disturbances or wetland restoration. I used advanced statistical approaches based on diversity-interaction models to disentangle species interaction mechanisms underlying diversity effect and structural equation models to estimate effect of flooding on invasion.Strong resistance of short fast-growing annual plants to restrict P. australis emergence was one of the most consistent findings across several experiments. This result suggests priority effect as a mechanism regulating biotic resistance to prevent seed-mediated invasion of P. australis. Regarding the diversity-invasibility relationship in community assembly, combining certain functional groups in specific ratio led to complementarity diversity effect which strengthened biotic resistance. This result implies species interactions between functional groups are key mechanisms generating diversity effect. Structural equation model supported a partial mediation hypothesis in which both direct flooding effect on P. australis and indirect flooding effect on wetland plants determined invasion success. Abiotic constraint and biotic resistance worked synergistically or antagonistically in controlling invasion depending on the fitness of the wetlands species involved. Finally, propagule pressure increased invasion success up to a threshold beyond which additional P. australis seeds did not increase invasion proportionally. This threshold was controlled by the species recruitment rate (i.e., seed density) of wetland plants, decreasing with increased density of wetland plants. By embracing complex invasion processes and multiple drivers, my research not only advances our comprehension of early community assembly and response to invasion, but also proposes a useful analytical framework that I hope will inspire future investigations and experimentations in community ecology. The fields of restoration ecology and invasion ecology, in particular, are in dire need of strong quantitative evidence to support ecological management approaches. This study can be an important step toward predicting invasion risk and impact as well as designing native community assembly for invasive plant management. " --

Plant Community and Environmental Change

Plant Community and Environmental Change PDF Author: Jonathan Henn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Understanding the forces that govern plant community structure, function, and response to change is a central question in ecology. Theory predicts that plant communities assemble as a result of a species ability to disperse, tolerate the environment, and interact with other organisms. Recently, there has been a strong focus on predicting the success of species within communities based on their ability to disperse, tolerate stress, successfully compete, and survive as measured by their phenotypic and functional characteristics, or "traits". In an era of global change, trait-based ecology offers the promise of predicting community responses without studying each species individually. The aim of my dissertation is to understand how plant traits mediate species responses to climate change, species introductions, disturbance regimes, and habitat loss and fragmentation. My first chapter describes how functional traits of native and non-native plants differ and how environmental gradients affect these differences. Theory predicts that differences in species should affect the extent to which native and non-native species compete and fill different niches, both of which can be mechanisms of invasion. I considered both intra- and interspecific variation in traits across a strong natural environmental climate gradient in Hawaii. Non-native species have different characteristics than native species overall, but these differences are minimized in cool, wet conditions. This suggests that native and non-native species compete more strongly in cool, wet conditions and that invaders in hot, dry conditions are filling different niches. My second chapter asks how ontogeny affects commonly measured plant functional traits. Using a greenhouse experiment with eight common prairie perennial plants, I measured traits every two weeks throughout the growing season to investigate how much within-species variation in phenotype is due to age alone. My findings demonstrate that plant traits do change through time with the fastest changes occurring in younger plants. As plants age, they generally shift from acquisitive resource-use strategies to conservative resource-use strategies, however, faster-growing species change more than slower-growing species. Since most trait-based studies rely on functional traits measured from adult plants, my results suggest that it may be important to also incorporate traits of younger individuals, especially when evaluating assembling communities. My third chapter investigates plant strategies for early spring survival and growth following disturbance by fire in tallgrass prairie. I measured cold tolerance and specific leaf area (leaf carbon content) as metrics of stress tolerance and leaf area as a metric of growth to determine how plant strategies change through time and whether there are tradeoffs between growth and tolerance. Disturbance timing affects tolerance traits such that fall burns promote more tolerant leaves early in the spring while spring burns promote more tolerant leaves late in the season. There is weak evidence for a tradeoff where increased tolerance results in a reduction in growth. Overall, these results suggest that plants exhibit strategies for spring survival and growth that vary from cold avoidance with rapid growth to cold tolerance with slower growth. My fourth chapter explores how disturbance and winter climate change interact to affect prairie plant growth, phenology, and community composition. I established a three-year field experiment that manipulates fire timing and winter snow depth in restored prairies. Plots that have reduced snow and that are burned in the fall have substantially colder winter soil temperatures and thaw earlier in spring. The disturbance treatments change the magnitude and direction of response to snow depth treatments for most species and have species-specific effects on plant growth and phenology. These results provide clear evidence that disturbance regimes can set the stage for climate change responses in grassland plant communities.

Invasive and Introduced Plants and Animals

Invasive and Introduced Plants and Animals PDF Author: Ian D. Rotherham
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1849710716
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
In an increasingly multicultural society this raises huge questions of ethics and choice.

Beyond the War on Invasive Species

Beyond the War on Invasive Species PDF Author: Tao Orion
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603585648
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Invasive species are everywhere, from forests and prairies to mountaintops and river mouths. Their rampant nature and sheer numbers appear to overtake fragile native species and forever change the ecosystems that they depend on. Concerns that invasive species represent significant threats to global biodiversity and ecological integrity permeate conversations from schoolrooms to board rooms, and concerned citizens grapple with how to rapidly and efficiently manage their populations. These worries have culminated in an ongoing “war on invasive species,” where the arsenal is stocked with bulldozers, chainsaws, and herbicides put to the task of their immediate eradication. In Hawaii, mangrove trees (Avicennia spp.) are sprayed with glyphosate and left to decompose on the sandy shorelines where they grow, and in Washington, helicopters apply the herbicide Imazapyr to smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) growing in estuaries. The “war on invasive species” is in full swing, but given the scope of such potentially dangerous and ecologically degrading eradication practices, it is necessary to question the very nature of the battle. Beyond the War on Invasive Species offers a much-needed alternative perspective on invasive species and the best practices for their management based on a holistic, permaculture-inspired framework. Utilizing the latest research and thinking on the changing nature of ecological systems, Beyond the War on Invasive Species closely examines the factors that are largely missing from the common conceptions of invasive species, including how the colliding effects of climate change, habitat destruction, and changes in land use and management contribute to their proliferation. There is more to the story of invasive species than is commonly conceived, and Beyond the War on Invasive Species offers ways of understanding their presence and ecosystem effects in order to make more ecologically responsible choices in land restoration and biodiversity conservation that address the root of the invasion phenomenon. The choices we make on a daily basis—the ways we procure food, shelter, water, medicine, and transportation—are the major drivers of contemporary changes in ecosystem structure and function; therefore, deep and long-lasting ecological restoration outcomes will come not just from eliminating invasive species, but through conscientious redesign of these production systems.

Invasive Species in Forests and Rangelands of the United States

Invasive Species in Forests and Rangelands of the United States PDF Author: Therese M. Poland
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030453677
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
This open access book describes the serious threat of invasive species to native ecosystems. Invasive species have caused and will continue to cause enormous ecological and economic damage with ever increasing world trade. This multi-disciplinary book, written by over 100 national experts, presents the latest research on a wide range of natural science and social science fields that explore the ecology, impacts, and practical tools for management of invasive species. It covers species of all taxonomic groups from insects and pathogens, to plants, vertebrates, and aquatic organisms that impact a diversity of habitats in forests, rangelands and grasslands of the United States. It is well-illustrated, provides summaries of the most important invasive species and issues impacting all regions of the country, and includes a comprehensive primary reference list for each topic. This scientific synthesis provides the cultural, economic, scientific and social context for addressing environmental challenges posed by invasive species and will be a valuable resource for scholars, policy makers, natural resource managers and practitioners.

Ecological Assembly Rules and Soil Legacy Effects in the Restoration of an Invaded Plant Community

Ecological Assembly Rules and Soil Legacy Effects in the Restoration of an Invaded Plant Community PDF Author: Bridget Hilbig
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781339029092
Category : Bromegrasses
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
Understanding the composition of ecological communities that arise from potential species pools has implications for community assembly and applications for restoration. Invasive species pose special challenges to restoration by contributing to ecosystem degradation as well as resisting restoration efforts. In the face of such challenges, understanding the complex of mechanisms working together to enable an invasive species to establish and spread may lead to better management strategies and greater restoration success. The overall objective of this dissertation is to understand mechanisms contributing to the success of a Mediterranean annual grass, Bromus diandrus, through the use of both field and greenhouse studies, and to use this understanding to inform restoration of invaded ecosystems. More specifically, I consider three potential mechanisms of invasion: 1) plant functional traits, 2) plant-soil feedback, and 3) soil legacy effects. The results of the studies of this dissertation demonstrate that multiple mechanisms of invasion promote Bromus diandrus success. First, functionally similar native plant communities did not demonstrate biotic resistance to B. diandrus invasion during restoration studies. Rather, earlier germination and larger seed mass of B. diandrus allows this invasive grass to establish even in the presence of morphologically similar native species with greater relative growth rates. Second, positive plant-soil feedback in B. diandrus attributed to the fine arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi contributes to its overall success. Lastly, strong soil legacies in abandoned agriculture also contribute to B. diandrus invasion and inhibit successful reestablishment of native plants. Root fungal pathogens found in abandoned agricultural fields result in decreased biomass of some native species as well as B. diandrus . A greater understanding of the mechanisms contributing to B. diandrus invasion success suggests that restoration attempts should seed with functionally similar natives while manipulating germination cues and utilize facilitated microbial inoculations to reduce Bromus diandrus establishment. However, many mechanisms contribute to the overall success of this invasive species making it competitively superior, and eradication of B. diandrus on a large scale is unlikely.