Glyphosate effects on seed bank and vegetation composition of temperate grasslands

Rodríguez, A. M.; Jacobo, Elizabeth Juliana

doi:10.1111/j.1654-109x.2012.01213.x

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Nevertheless, 3 years of removals were not enough to decrease the differences between removal and non‐invaded communities, which may suggest that longer experiments and/or further restoration strategies are needed. In addition, herbicide application was the only treatment that increased the differences in species composition to non‐invaded communities, suggesting that besides removing E. plana , glyphosate may have other non‐target effects on natural vegetation (Rodriguez & Jacobo ). This finding has practical relevance, as glyphosate application is the most common method used for E. plana control in southern Brazil's grasslands, which may have further important implications for biodiversity conservation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invasive plant removal: assessing community impact and recovery from invasion

Guido

Pillar

2017

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Summary Invasive species spread on natural ecosystems is one of the most important causes of biodiversity loss. To disentangle the invasive plant impact on communities it is essential to combine experimental and observation approaches, which enable the correct interpretations of results and lead to the right decisions for management. We examined the invasion of southern Brazil's grasslands by Eragrostis plana, which is currently the most problematic invasive species in the region. By means of an experiment on invaded communities complemented by observation of non‐invaded communities, we assessed E. plana impact on vegetation, evaluated community response to its removal and discussed the effectiveness of removal methods. Fifty permanent 1 × 1 m plots were located on natural grassland that was partially invaded by E. plana. Removal was done annually from 2012 to 2015 and consisted of five treatments (n = 10): (i) clipping above‐ground biomass on one occasion; (ii) clipping above‐ground biomass periodically; (iii) herbicide and (iv) hand‐pulling, plus (v) control treatment with no‐removal. In addition, 10 plots located in an adjacent non‐invaded area were monitored. All removal treatments reduced E. plana cover across years, but were not enough to eradicate it. Our results revealed not only differences between invaded and non‐invaded communities, but also an effect of E. plana removal on resident species richness and total cover. At the local scale, we demonstrated the impact of E. plana invasion on grassland vegetation, suggesting a reduction in resident species richness and total cover. Invasive species removal changed communities differently from invaded ones, but not resembling non‐invaded references, suggesting that community recovery may need more time for reestablishment or that some restoration strategies are required. Synthesis and applications. This study demonstrated the impact on vegetation of the most important invasive species in southern Brazil's natural grasslands. We highlighted the advantages of combining observations of non‐invaded communities and experimental studies on invaded communities, with and without invasive removal, to help infer causal relationships in ecological invasion research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invasive plant removal: assessing community impact and recovery from invasion

Guido

Pillar

2017

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…increasingly difficult to use because of popular sentiment. Herbicides may have negative effects on native species (Cornish and Burgin 2005;Rinella et al 2009;Rodriguez and Jacobo 2013), but in systems such as California grasslands, where exotic species exert a strong competitive effect on native survival, the net effect of herbicides is usually positive .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of Exotic Control Strategies for Restoring Coastal Prairie Grasses

Holl

Howard

Brown

et al. 2014

Invasive plant sci. manag.

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Restoration in Mediterranean-climate grasslands is strongly impeded by lack of native propagules and competition with exotic grasses and forbs. We report on a study testing several methods for exotic plant control combined with planting native grasses to restore prairies in former agricultural land in coastal California. Specifically we compared tarping (shading out recently germinated seedlings with black plastic) once, tarping twice, topsoil removal, herbicide (glyphosate), and a control treatment in factorial combinations with or without wood mulch. Into each treatment we planted three native grass species (Elymus glaucus, Hordeum brachyantherum, and Stipa pulchra) and monitored plant survival and cover for three growing seasons. Survival of native grass species was high in all treatments, but was slightly lower in unmulched soil removal and control treatments in the first 2 yr. Mulching, tarping, and herbicide were all effective in reducing exotic grass cover and enhancing native grass cover for the first 2 yr, but by the third growing season cover of the plant guilds and bare ground had mostly converged, primarily because of the declining effects of the initial treatments. Mulching and tarping were both considerably more expensive than herbicide treatment. Topsoil removal was less effective in increasing native grass cover likely because soil removal altered the surface hydrology in this system. Our results show that several treatments were effective in enhancing native grass establishment, but that longer term monitoring is needed to evaluate the efficacy of restoration efforts. The most appropriate approach to controlling exotics to restore specific grassland sites will depend not only on the effectiveness, but also on relative costs and site constraints.

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“…Prior research in other systems have demonstrated an effect of cropping system (Cardina et al 2002;Harbuck et al 2009;Legere et al 2011), including crop sequences of genetically engineered (GE) crops (Bohan et al 2011) on a regional basis, but these relationships have been limited to broad categorizations of the weed seedbank (e.g., monocotyledons and dicotyledons) and not a multivariate community-based assessment. Outside of row cropping systems, glyphosate applications can cause dramatic shifts in the seedbank composition of managed pastures (Rodriguez and Jacobo 2013). Based upon the results of surveying the emerged weeds in these fields (Young et al 2013), we expected the weed flora in the soil seedbank across broad regions of the U.S. in agricultural fields to show a signal in response to the rotation of GR traits and crops.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Seedbank and Field Emergence of Weeds in Glyphosate-Resistant Cropping Systems in the United States

et al. 2015

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A segment of the debate surrounding the commercialization and use of glyphosate-resistant (GR) crops focuses on the theory that the implementation of these traits is an extension of the intensification of agriculture that will further erode the biodiversity of agricultural landscapes. A large field-scale study was initiated in 2006 in the United States on 156 different field sites with a minimum 3-yr history of GR-corn, -cotton or -soybean in the cropping system. The impact of cropping system, crop rotation, frequency of using the GR crop trait, and several categorical variables on seedbank weed population density and diversity was analyzed. The parameters of total weed population density of all species in the seedbank, species richness, Shannon's H′ and evenness were not affected by any management treatment. The similarity between the seedbank and aboveground weed community was more strongly related to location than management; previous year's crops and cropping systems were also important while GR trait rotation was not. The composition of the weed flora was more strongly related to location (geography) than any other parameter. The diversity of weed flora in agricultural sites with a history of GR crop production can be influenced by several factors relating to the specific method in which the GR trait is integrated (cropping system, crop rotation, GR trait rotation), the specific weed species, and the geographical location. Continuous GR crop, compared to fields with other cropping systems, only had greater species diversity (species richness) of some life forms, i.e., biennials, winter annuals, and prostrate weeds. Overall diversity was related to geography and not cropping system. These results justify further research to clarify the complexities of crops grown with herbicide-resistance traits to provide a more complete characterization of their culture and local adaptation to the weed seedbank.

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Glyphosate effects on seed bank and vegetation composition of temperate grasslands

Cited by 23 publications

References 69 publications

Invasive plant removal: assessing community impact and recovery from invasion

Invasive plant removal: assessing community impact and recovery from invasion

Efficacy of Exotic Control Strategies for Restoring Coastal Prairie Grasses

Seedbank and Field Emergence of Weeds in Glyphosate-Resistant Cropping Systems in the United States

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