Iowa's Non-native Graminoids

An Overview and Management Plan of Iowa's Non-native, Invasive, Terrestrial Forbs

Can Nutrients Alone Shift a Sedge Meadow towards Dominance by the Invasive Typha 3 Glauca?

Where wetlands receive urban runoff, Typha spp. and other invasive plants often displace the native vegetation. We tested the ability of nutrients (N and P) to increase vegetative growth of T. 3 glauca (a hybrid of T. latifolia and T. angustifolia). In the greenhouse, 17 treatments revealed that T. 3 glauca required both N and P for growth, and total leaf length was most stimulated where a high...

Belowground legacies of Pinus contorta invasion and removal result in multiple mechanisms of invasional meltdown

Plant invasions can change soil biota and nutrients in ways that drive subsequent plant communities, particularly when co-invading with belowground mutualists such as ectomycorrhizal fungi. These effects can persist following removal of the invasive plant and, combined with effects of removal per se, influence subsequent plant communities and ecosystem functioning. We used field observations an...

Response of understory vegetation to salvage logging following a high-severity wildfire

Timber is frequently salvage-logged following high-severity stand-replacing wildfire, but the practice is controversial. One concern is that compound disturbances could result in more deleterious impacts than either disturbance individually, with mechanical operations having the potential to set back recovering native species and increase invasion by non-native species. Following the 2002 Cone ...

The unseen invaders: introduced earthworms as drivers of change in plant communities in North American forests (a meta‐analysis)

Globally, biological invasions can have strong impacts on biodiversity as well as ecosystem functioning. While less conspicuous than introduced aboveground organisms, introduced belowground organisms may have similarly strong effects. Here, we synthesize for the first time the impacts of introduced earthworms on plant diversity and community composition in North American forests. We conducted a...