Searching for David within the Goliath of alien woody plant invasions in the Western Cape Province

Abstract

Despite a few victories in which biocontrol has contained some species of invasive alien woody plants, the war to contain alien invasions and to prevent them from threatening the exceptional plant diversity of the Cape Floristic Region is largely being lost. 1-8 Indeed, these invading plants are estimated to be expanding their range at an average rate of 7% per year. 9 http://www.sajs.co.za

The Role of Environmental Factors in Promoting and Limiting Biological Invasions in South Africa

“…The presence or absence of alien trees in fynbos and encroaching native trees in grassland environments of South Africa have been linked to a wide range of nutrients, soil properties, and soil treatments, including pH, acid saturation, Mg, Ca, Mn, Cu, Zn, B, P, and N-fertilisation (Mills and Allen 2018;Mills et al 2017). Unpublished data collected from 25 diverse sites across South African Fynbos, Grassland and Savanna sites have shown that soils in sub-sites relatively poor in boron or relatively rich in phosphorus tend to be less wooded than adjacent sub-sites.…”