|
|
|
|
The Global Invasive Species Team | |
|
||
|
|
|
|||||
|
Global Invasive Species Team listserve digest #115 Fri Apr 18 2003 - 16:39:07 PDT --CONTENTS-- 1. We're baaaack! (Global) 2. Grazing Cynanchum/Vincetoxicum with goats (New York, USA) 3. Invasive species in NY and NJ (New York, USA) 4. Invasive Species Initiative in Spanish/Portuguese (Global) 5. Australian brochure on woody invasives (Global) 6. Are dormant Japanese knotweed crowns viable (New York, USA) 7. Invasive species reading (Global) 8. Incipient weed meetings (Nationwide, USA) 9. Literature reviews (Global) --------------------------------------- 1. We're baaaack! (Global) From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu) After a delay from work, work, and a little fun, the invasive species listserve is back into action. I'm sorry about this little glitch in traffic---we are back in action! --------------------------------------- 2. Grazing Cynanchum/Vincetoxicum with goats (New York, USA) From: Fran Lawlor (flawlor(at)tnc.org) We have a landowner who would like to try grazing goats to control Cynanchum rossicum (swallow-wort, aka Vincetoxicum rossicum). This milkweed-family plant is high in alkaloids and glycosides. Does anyone out there have information on toxicity for the goats or safety of the meat or milk for human consumption? --------------------------------------- 3. Invasive species in NY and NJ (New York, USA) From: Jennifer Wardell (sweetclover30(at)hotmail.com) I am in search of a booklet listing invasive species for the state of NY and NJ. If such a booklet exists, would you be so kind as to send one to me or guide me to a link that might have the information? Thanks ever so much! --------------------------------------- 4. Invasive Species Initiative in Spanish/Portuguese (Global) From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu) Elizabeth Sklad (Invasive Species Initiative staff at the WWO) notified me that brochures describing the Initiative are available on the TNC internet site in English, Espanol, and Portugues! See: http://nature.org/initiatives/invasivespecies/ --------------------------------------- 5. Australian brochure on woody invasives (Global) From: Jil Swearingen (jil_swearingen(at)nps.gov) Have you seen this really nifty brochure produced by Western Australia? It is applicable to Florida and other USA states. The 0.6MB pdf file can be downloaded from http://members.iinet.net.au/~ewan/pdf/woody%20weedsA4.pdf --------------------------------------- 6. Are dormant Japanese knotweed crowns viable (New York, USA) From: Steven Flint (sflint(at)tnc.org) I was recently asked if the seeds still attached to the dormant canes and luxurious crowns of last season's (standing) Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) were still viable. I didn't have the answer. My intuitive guess is no, and that folks can take their private, residential property's canes and crowns and carefully fold/snap them up and dutifully shove them into their burn barrels and light a match. (That is, if they have a brush-burning permit.) --------------------------------------- 7. Invasive species reading (Global) From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu) Nicole Basham (TNC-WWO) recently asked us for suggestions on a "suggested reading list" on invasive species, that could be circulated to donors or used as a crash course for people working in fund raising. Do you have any favorite invasive species books or articles that were eye-opening or clarifying for you? Ideally, these resources would be content-rich, but not so technical as to intimidate non-scientists. However, a few nerdy suggestions would certainly be worthwhile. --------------------------------------- 8. Incipient weed meetings (Nationwide, USA) From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu) New meetings have been posted on our web site "Meetings Page." Specifically, *New England invasives summit, Massachusetts, 19-20 September. *Invasive Plants in Natural and Invasive Species Symposium, California, 14-16 October 2003. For more information: http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/meetings.html --------------------------------------- 9. Literature reviews (Global) From: John Randall (jarandall(at)ucdavis.edu) Hrusa, F., Ertter, B., Sanders, A., Leppig, G., and Dean, E. 2002. Catalogue of non-native vascular plants occurring spontaneously in California beyond those addressed in The Jepson Manual - Part I. Madrono 49 (2): 61-98. This paper records 315 non-native vascular plant species which occur spontaneously in California but which were not included in the most recent statewide flora (the 1993 Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California). Many of these species have been reported one or a few at a time in previous publications but this is the first time all these written and verbal reports have been compiled in nearly a decade. The authors carefully and painstakingly checked every report and accepted only those backed by herbarium vouchers as adequately documented. From this they concluded that 58 of these "new" non-native species are fully or sparingly naturalized in relatively undisturbed wildlands, 34 are tenuously established or locally persisting, 13 are documented only as non-escaped weeds of greenhouses or similarly cultivated environments and 53 are documented only from disturbed areas and 43 are presumed to be non-persisting casuals or "waif's." The authors could find no current information or observations on 110 species (species confirmed as present in California in the past but for which specimens, reports or observations less than about 30 years old could not be found) and presume that 4 species have been eradicated from the state. Definitions for all of these categories are provided in the paper. Eighteen species are highlighted as being potentially significant "new" pest plants. Appendix 1 is a list of all 315 taxa and Appendix 2 is an annotated list giving brief information on the distribution, current status and documentation for each species. Klironomos, J.N. 2002. Feedback with soil biota contributes to plant rarity and invasiveness in communities. Nature 417: 67-70. The four separate but complimentary experiments described in this paper support the hypothesis that invasive non-native plant species may promote the growth and/or activity of soil biota that favor their own growth and abundance while the growth of rare native plant species promotes the growth/activity of microbes (pathogens, etc) that hinder the growth of these rare plants (i.e. invasive species growth is aided by positive feedbacks and rare native species growth is hindered by negative feedback!). A nice summary of this paper and its implications by W. H. Van der Putten, who has carried out ground-breaking studies of plant-soil biota interactions himself, can be found on pages 32-33 of the same issue of Nature. In the first experiment Klironomos examined the growth of five non-native invasive species and five rare native species from old fields in southern Ontario (Canada) when grown in soil that had previously supported the same species vs their growth in pots with soil that had previously supported other species. All of the invasive species grew better in their "home" soil than in soil that had previously supported other species (significant differences for four species, non-significant for one) while all the growth of all five rare natives was significantly worse in their own "home" soil. In the second experiment he found that the rare native species showed a strong negative feedback when grown in the presence of a filtrate of fungal pathogens/saprobes from soils that previously supported the same species. In contrast the origin of the filtrate did not significantly affect the growth of the non-native plants. Both native and non-native plant species grew better in the presence of filtrate of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) taken from soils that had previously supported the same species. In the third experiment he found that the rare native species growth was hindered when they were inoculated with fungi other than AMF taken from roots of the same species (presumably pathogenic fungi) while no growth reductions were observed for any of the invasive plants. In the fourth experiment he measured soil feedback and relative abundance of 61 co-existing species from an old field community and found that all species that exhibited strong negative feedback were relatively rare in the community while the most abundant species either exhibited low negative feedback or positive feedback. This study adds to a growing body of work (see note below) indicating that interactions between plant species and the soils they grow in (both the soil biota and soil chemistry) may play a major role and influencing the abundance of different species. This work also hints that some invasive species may be able "push" soil conditions past some threshold such that they favor the invader at the expense of previously dominant native species. Related papers: Belnap, J. and S.L. Phillips. Soil biota in an ungrazed grassland: response to annual grass (Bromus tectorum) invasion. 2001. Ecological Applications 11(5): 1261-1275. (Summarized in Listserve Digest #99). Marler, M.J., C.A. Zabinski and R.M. Callaway. 1999. Mycorrhizae indirectly enhance competitive effects of an invasive forb on a native bunchgrass. Ecology 80(4): 1180-1186. (Summarized in listserve digest #74) |
||||||
