Can prescribed fire save the endangered coastal prairie ecosystem from Chinese Tallow invasion?
No abstract available.
Louisiana, Texas↗
SEARCH · Search USGS
Results for “Wildland Weeds”
Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Effects of an invasive plant on a desert sand dune landscape
Given the abundance of non-native species invading wildland habitats, managers need to employ informed triage to focus control efforts on weeds with the greatest potential for negative impacts. Our objective here was to determine the level of threat Sahara mustard, Brassica tournefortii, represents to meeting regional goals for protecting biodiversity. Sahara mustard has spread throughout much of the Mojave and lower Sonoran Deserts. It has occurred in southern California's Coachella Valley for nearly 80 years, punctuated by years of extremely high abundance following high rainfall. In those years the mustard has clear negative impacts on the native flora. Using mustard removal experiments we identified reductions in native plant reproduction, shifting composition increasingly toward Sahara mustard while decreasing the fraction of native species. High between-year variance in precipitation may be a key to maintaining biodiversity as the mustard is less abundant in drier years. Sahara mustard impacts to the native fauna were much less evident. Of the animal species evaluated, only the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, Uma inornata, demonstrated a negative response to mustard abundance; however the impacts were short-lived, lasting no more than a year after the mustard's dominance waned. Without control measures the long-term impacts to desert biodiversity may rest on the changing climate. Wetter conditions or increased periodicity of high rainfall years will favor Sahara mustard and result in reduced biodiversity, especially of native annual plants. Drier conditions will keep the mustard from becoming dominant but may have other negative consequences on the native flora and fauna. ?? 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Biological Invasions↗
Population history provides foundational knowledge for utilizing and developing native plant restoration materials
A species’ population structure and history are critical pieces of information that can help guide the use of available native plant materials in restoration treatments and decide what new native plant materials should be developed to meet future restoration needs. In the western United States, Pseudoroegneria spicata (bluebunch wheatgrass; Poaceae) is an important component of grassland and shrubland plant communities and commonly used for restoration due to its drought resistance and competitiveness with exotic weeds. We used next‐generation sequencing data to investigate the processes that shaped P. spicata 's geographic pattern of genetic variation across the Intermountain West. Pseudoroegneria spicata 's genetic diversity is partitioned into populations that likely differentiated since the Last Glacial Maximum. Adjacent populations display varying magnitudes of historical gene flow, with migration rates ranging from multiple migrants per generation to multiple generations per migrant. When considering the commercial germplasm sources available for restoration, genetic identities remain representative of the wildland localities from which germplasm sources were originally developed, and they maintain high levels of heterozygosity and nucleotide diversity. However, the commercial germplasm sources represent a small fraction of the overall genetic diversity of P. spicata in the Intermountain West. Given the low migration rates and long divergence times between some pairs of P. spicata populations, using commercial germplasm sources could facilitate undesirable restoration outcomes when used in certain geographic areas, even if the environment in which the commercial materials thrive is similar to that of the restoration site. As such, population structure and history can be used to provide guidance on what geographic areas may need additional native plant materials so that restoration efforts support species and community resilience and improve outcomes.
Evolutionary Applications↗