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The Global Invasive Species Team | |
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Global Invasive Species Team listserve digest #126 Fri Apr 16 2004 - 17:04:17 PDT --CONTENTS-- 1. Web site additions (Global, Planet Earth) 2. A good resource for info on fire and weeds (Global, Planet Earth) 3. Aridlands Grazing Network Workshop #6 (Western North America) 4. Weedy gifts! (Washington, USA) 5. Japanese barberry control (Global, Planet Earth) 6. Literature reviews (Global, Planet Earth) --------------------------------------- 1. Web site additions (Global, Planet Earth) From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu) One of the best indicators that a non-native plant is likely to be invasive is if it has a history of being invasive someplace else. The WIST web site is now hosting a big listing of weedy records, created by our Australian colleague Rod Randall. Curious if that Bongardia chrysogonum or Carnegia gigantea in your area has been a weed for someone else? Look it up on Rod's list to see if the plant has a record of prior offenses: http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/biglist.html We've also included an update on the summer and fall invasive species meetings that are being scheduled. Perhaps a holiday in Alabama is in order, so you could attend the Alabama Invasive Plant Council too! http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/meetings.html --------------------------------------- 2. A good resource for info on fire and weeds (Global, Planet Earth) From: Mandy Tu (imtu(at)tnc.org) If you are a prescribed fire nut, you are probably already well-aware of the US Forest Service's Fire Effects Information Systems database and website, chock-full of useful information on the effects of fire on specific plants, on vegetation types, and on wildlife (including mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles). Did you know that they now have extensive write-ups on fire effects and the fire ecology for a number of invasive plant species? These write-ups also include information on species distribution, potential habitats in which they occur, and management considerations. We (at WIST) have been working with the FEIS folks to complete these Knowledge Base Summaries (KBS) for 60 invasive plant species. See completed summaries at: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/index.html --------------------------------------- 3. Aridlands Grazing Network Workshop #6 (Western North America) From: Bob Unnasch (bunnasch(at)tnc.org) The Aridlands Grazing/Invasive species management meeting will be 18-20 May 2004, and will be held at Hell's Gate State Park in Lewiston, Idaho. As a field trip, we will be taking a jet-boat up the Snake River to visit Tri-State CWMA sites in Hell's Canyon on the 18th! Expect to learn and have fun! The registration form, which includes a workshop description) can be downloaded from the WIST web site at: http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/meetings/18052004.doc The registration form must be completed and emailed back to me by 30 April. The registration form includes logistical information that is important for you to review. While we have reserved a block of rooms a the Quality Inn in Clarkston, WA, YOU NEED TO MAKE YOUR OWN HOTEL RESERVATIONS. Instructions are in the registration packet. The Conference organizers are paying for the conference expenses, including rooming for the nights of the 17th, 18th & 19th. We ask you to find a roommate and share a room if at all possible. We can help provide names of potential roommates. --------------------------------------- 4. Weedy gifts! (Washington, USA) From: Betsy Lyons (blyons(at)tnc.org) ---Betsy informed us of a great web site that is your "answer to birthday gift buying, employee appreciation, xmas and marketing...." Where else can you get a Japanese knotweed baby-bib? http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=InvasiveSpecies --------------------------------------- 5. Japanese barberry control (Global, Planet Earth) From: Graham Rice (garden(at)tiscali.co.uk) Can anyone point me to some detailed recommendations on chemical control of Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii)? I've done a fairly thorough web search and found a variety of generally vague and contradictory recommendations. Have any studies been done on this? Is the cut-stump method more effective then a foliar spray? Are there any recommendations on exact timing? In particular, I find that cut-stump treatments are recommended "from mid summer to fall", "when the ground is frozen", "when the ground is not frozen" and "at any time of year"! I have my own views on this but any pointers to research or to detailed recommendations for any form of chemical control would be much appreciated. --------------------------------------- 6. Literature reviews (Global, Planet Earth) From: John Randall (jarandall(at)ucdavis.edu) Hall, R.O., Jr., J.L. Tank and M.F. Dybdahl. 2003. Exotic snails dominate nitrogen and carbon cycling in a highly productive stream. Frontiers in Ecology 1(8): 407-411. The New Zealand mud snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, has invaded many waterways in the western U.S. since it was first detected here in 1987. This study found that it dominated nitrogen and carbon fluxes in a geothermal spring stream in the greater Yellowstone area. These non-native invasive snails (native to New Zealand) consumed 75% of gross primary production in the stream and accounted for two-thirds of ammonium demand. This was due to the high snail biomass (densities of 20,000 - 50,000 snails/m2), rather than to high rates of consumption and excretion. These impacts are like those caused by zebra mussel, another instance in which a single species achieves such high biomass that it can dominate nutrient fluxes; for example in some lakes zebra mussels can filter volumes of water equal to the entire water column in 1-4 days. These species may also affect processes beyond the ecosystems they infest by altering nutrient exports to downstream systems. Unfortunately, New Zealand mud snails are continuing to spread to watersheds across western North America including the Columbia, Snake, Missouri, and Colorado watersheds and in October, 2003 they were found west of the Sierra Nevada-Cascade Range for the first time in a popular fishing area of Putah Creek west of Davis, California. Two months later they were found in California's Mokelumne River and in January 2004 a well established population was discovered in an eleven mile reach of California's Calaveras River. Ayres, D.R. and D.R. Strong. 2003. Spartina foliosa (Poaceae) - a common species on the road to rarity? Madrono 50(3): 209-213. Spartina foliosa, a saltmarsh cordgrass native to the US Pacific coast, is forming hybrid swarms with S. alterniflora, a cordgrass from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and that was introduced to San Francisco Bay in the 1970s. Initially researchers believed that hybridization between pure parents of each species was the driving force of the hybrid spread but they subsequently found no F1s among hybrids in the wild and realized that there was little overlap between flowering times of the two species. They now believe that hybridization between pure parents is relatively rare and that instead the few hybrids which do form have broad flowering times which overlap those of both species and allow high levels of backcrossing. Previously it was believed that hybridization was not a major threat to common, wide ranging species like S. foliosa, but the rapid increase in abundance of hybrids in San Francisco Bay and adjacent areas suggests it may be in this case. Models of the population dynamics of the two pure Spartina species and the hybrids using relative fitness values based on their field data, predicted that both pure species will be replaced by a hybrid swarm in an invaded population within 20 generations. The authors conclude that S. foliosa is in immediate danger of extirpation in San Francisco Bay, and perhaps beyond. Boydston, R.A. and M.M. Williams, II. 2004. Combined effects of Aceria malherbae and herbicides on field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) growth. Weed Science 52: 297-301. Combining the biocontrol agent Aceria malherbae (a gall mite) and a sublethal dose of the herbicide 2,4-D or glyphosate (active ingredient in Roundup and Rodeo) reduced field bindweed root biomass more than either treatment alone. These results are fairly typical for a recent series of studies on combining the use of herbicides with biocontrol agents (usually agents that have not satisfactorily suppressed the weed on their own) [e.g. Lym and Nelson 2002 Weed Science 50: 812-819; summarized in listserve digest 112). |
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