| Previous digest | Subsequent digest |
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://tncinvasives.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)