An invasive exotic grass reduced sedge meadow species richness by half

Rojas, Isabel; Zedler, Joy B.

doi:10.1007/s11273-015-9409-3

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…While the association of P. arundinacea with degradation and declining species richness are well documented (Rojas & Zedler, ; Spyreas et al., ), the great potential for P. arundinacea to homogenize wetlands across an entire region has so far only been suggested (Spyreas et al., ), and not demonstrated (although see Aronson and Galatowitsch () and Matthews and Spyreas () for the role of P. arundinacea in homogenizing restored wetlands). By quantifying declining β‐diversity associated with P. arundinacea in herbaceous emergent wetlands across Illinois, we have demonstrated that invasion by this species represents a threat to the distinctiveness of floras across vast scales.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biotic homogenization of regional wetland plant communities within short time‐scales in the presence of an aggressive invader

2017

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Biotic homogenization (BH), a process by which β‐diversity erodes, represents a severe threat to biodiversity. Wetland plant communities may be especially susceptible to BH; however, this process has rarely been quantified and represents just one of many possible outcomes of compositional change. Likewise, few studies have used more than two timepoints to investigate BH as a dynamic temporal process. To address these issues, we quantified changes in β‐diversity amongst 48 herbaceous emergent wetlands across a landscape over four timepoints from 1997 to 2015. Pairwise occurrence‐ and abundance‐based dissimilarity metrics were used to quantify β‐diversity. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling was used to map these changes in compositional similarity through time, and repeated measures ANOVA via randomization was used to test for a significant effect of time on β‐diversity. Results indicated that herbaceous emergent wetlands homogenized in Illinois over 15 years due to the increased presence and abundance of Phalaris arundinacea and the decline of several other species. Temporal dynamics of β‐diversity differed between occurrence‐ and abundance‐based analyses. Synthesis. Using both presence–absence and abundance data to investigate BH helped avoid underestimating the impact of BH on β‐diversity, and drew attention to different temporal dynamics in β‐diversity at these two resolutions of community structure. This study highlights challenges associated with investigating BH, such as problems documenting the process where homogenization is not occurring in every site in a region, or where sites are converging towards more than one homogenized state. Incorporating concepts like alternative stable states may be helpful in resolving these issues, and present a more realistic picture of ecological change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biotic homogenization of regional wetland plant communities within short time‐scales in the presence of an aggressive invader

2017

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“…The Challenges of Managing Water for Wetland Ecology, Flood Mitigation and Agriculture… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98727 nutrients from the river [12,14]. Hydro-ecological assessment involved developing a model of the upper Lunan Water and the operation of this outlet zone.…”

Section: Hydrological Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

The Challenges of Managing Water for Wetland Ecology, Flood Mitigation and Agriculture in the Upper Lunan Water, an Intensive Arable Catchment in Scotland

Vinten¹,

Gunn²

2022

Environmental Management - Pollution, Habitat, Ecology, and Sustainability

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The “Water for All” project has aimed to develop a multi-disciplinary science case for adaptive management through a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme in the Lunan Water, a lowland catchment in Scotland. Management needs for high and low flows, standing water levels and flow routing to/from high nature value mesotrophic wetlands were appraised. A key part has been the development of a real time hydrological-hydraulic model of the upper Lunan Water as an aid to management and scenario analysis especially with respect to existing and potential hydraulic structures. This provides better working knowledge and forecast-based simulations of high or low flow situations for catchment management planners, farmers, riparian owners and other local stakeholders. Engagement with local users and residents has included surveying Willingness To Pay (WTP) for hydraulic management as a function of governance mechanisms, development of a catchment management group , and interviews and workshops with riparian and other land-users. The work has highlighted the joys and sorrows of seeking to develop a PES approach and lessons to be learnt in project management, promotion of multiple benefits, catchment-scale water governance and the vices and virtues of “benign neglect”.

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“…Another way wetland creation or restoration can impact vegetative communities is through the presence of invasive vegetative species. Restored wetlands could be more susceptible to colonization by invasive clonal graminoids that are difficult to eradicate (Rojas & Zedler, ), due to the lack of established vegetation at the start of restoration. Differences in vegetative characteristics and successional stage between created or restored wetlands and naturally occurring wetlands may provide diverse wildlife habitat that complements naturally occurring wetlands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of wetland characteristics between Agricultural Conservation Easement Program and public lands wetlands in West Virginia, USA

Lewis

Rota

Anderson

2020

Ecology and Evolution

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In West Virginia, USA, there are 24 conservation easement program wetlands enrolled in the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). These wetlands are located on private agricultural land and are passively managed. Due to their location within fragmented agricultural areas, wetlands enrolled in ACEP in West Virginia have the potential to add wetland ecosystem services in areas that are lacking these features. We evaluated ACEP wetlands compared to reference wetlands on public land in West Virginia by using surrounding land cover, vegetative cover, and wetland features and stressors such as the presence or absence of erosion, upland inclusion, algal mats, and evidence of impacts from the surrounding landscape as surrogate measurements of wetland function on 13 ACEP wetlands and 10 reference wetlands. ACEP wetlands had higher percentages of tree coverage and a higher proportion of agricultural land in the areas immediately surrounding the wetland. Reference wetlands had higher percent coverage of emergent vegetation and had a higher proportion of forest in the immediate landscape. Our findings suggest that ACEP wetlands provide valuable early successional and forested wetland cover in a state that is largely forested. Because of this, it is important to maintain and even expand ACEP in West Virginia to continue providing a valuable source of early successional wetland habitat.

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An invasive exotic grass reduced sedge meadow species richness by half

Cited by 14 publications

References 55 publications

Biotic homogenization of regional wetland plant communities within short time‐scales in the presence of an aggressive invader

Biotic homogenization of regional wetland plant communities within short time‐scales in the presence of an aggressive invader

The Challenges of Managing Water for Wetland Ecology, Flood Mitigation and Agriculture in the Upper Lunan Water, an Intensive Arable Catchment in Scotland

A comparison of wetland characteristics between Agricultural Conservation Easement Program and public lands wetlands in West Virginia, USA

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