Effective control or pathway to invasion? Recruitment of native and Lantana camara L. seedlings after a low intensity burn

Invasion by exotic species is among the most important global scale problems experienced by natural systems. One such species occurring in Australia is Lantana camara L. It infests grazing land, competes with crop species and infests areas of national significance important for the preservation of biodiversity. Management through burning is widely practised but the implications of it's use are poorly understood and some work suggests burning may actually facilitate Lantana dominance. This study aimed to further investigate the role of fire as an effective method of Lantana control by counting seedling germination frequencies over four site types; burnt and unburnt sites, with understories dominated by either Lantana or natives. It also further tested previous work suggesting increasing light levels through burning may stimulate the germination of Lantana. We found that burning may indeed facilitate Lantana invasion as Lantana seedlings were counted in areas previously dominated by native understories. Furthermore woody native seedlings were slow to return after fire which has implications from the perspective of the Empty Niche and the Fluctuating resource hypotheses following fire. The results were not in support of the idea that increasing light levels were the key driver to Lantana invasion, but rather it was concluded that a range of factors may be of significance. As these novel ecosystems become increasingly more common, it is recommended that a community based approach to weed management should be adopted in the future rather than management at the species level.