Cargando…

Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia

Across many southern regions of Australia, native grasslands have become seriously threatened by human activity, with only a fraction of the original areas remaining undisturbed. In particular, the introduction and establishment of exotic invasive weeds has caused significant degradation to the ecos...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mahmood, Ako H., Florentine, Singarayer, Graz, Friedrich P., Turville, Christopher, Palmer, Grant, Sillitoe, James, McLaren, David
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6235253/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30427840
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203653
_version_ 1783370843464663040
author Mahmood, Ako H.
Florentine, Singarayer
Graz, Friedrich P.
Turville, Christopher
Palmer, Grant
Sillitoe, James
McLaren, David
author_facet Mahmood, Ako H.
Florentine, Singarayer
Graz, Friedrich P.
Turville, Christopher
Palmer, Grant
Sillitoe, James
McLaren, David
author_sort Mahmood, Ako H.
collection PubMed
description Across many southern regions of Australia, native grasslands have become seriously threatened by human activity, with only a fraction of the original areas remaining undisturbed. In particular, the introduction and establishment of exotic invasive weeds has caused significant degradation to the ecosystems in these areas by contributing to a decrease in native plant density and diversity, and this has ultimately led to major changes to the ecosystem structure and function. One such example is Galenia pubescens. Our objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of four different attempts to control G. pubescens: herbicide control with glyphosate; organic herbicide control with pine oil; the application of mulch; and the addition of seeds of native species to the seedbank. Results shows that any one single control strategy is insufficient to control G. pubescens, and, in addition, it has shown that regeneration of native vegetation is limited unless direct seeding is applied. There was a strong indication that a combined strategy employing more than two of the aforementioned techniques is likely to be the most effective approach, at least in the short term. Underscoring the complexity of this task, our analysis on foliage cover of G. pubescens shows that the interaction of pine oil and glyphosate treatments appeared to be very effective after six months, but were not so effective after 18 months. By contrast, seeding with native seeds was not particularly effective at six months, but its longer-term contribution appears to be effective at 18 months. Further, our results obtained from the seedbank abundance study indicate that time alone was not a significant factor in restoration of the grasslands (p = 0.165); however there were interactions with time, shown by time*glyphosate (p = 0.008) and time*seeding (p = 0.016). Both interactions indicated that the applications of glyphosate and seeding were more beneficial after 18 months compared to six months. However, full regeneration of invaded native grasslands may not be possible unless further restoration programs are re-implemented after the first cycle of G. pubescens’ treatments have been completed.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6235253
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-62352532018-12-01 Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia Mahmood, Ako H. Florentine, Singarayer Graz, Friedrich P. Turville, Christopher Palmer, Grant Sillitoe, James McLaren, David PLoS One Research Article Across many southern regions of Australia, native grasslands have become seriously threatened by human activity, with only a fraction of the original areas remaining undisturbed. In particular, the introduction and establishment of exotic invasive weeds has caused significant degradation to the ecosystems in these areas by contributing to a decrease in native plant density and diversity, and this has ultimately led to major changes to the ecosystem structure and function. One such example is Galenia pubescens. Our objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of four different attempts to control G. pubescens: herbicide control with glyphosate; organic herbicide control with pine oil; the application of mulch; and the addition of seeds of native species to the seedbank. Results shows that any one single control strategy is insufficient to control G. pubescens, and, in addition, it has shown that regeneration of native vegetation is limited unless direct seeding is applied. There was a strong indication that a combined strategy employing more than two of the aforementioned techniques is likely to be the most effective approach, at least in the short term. Underscoring the complexity of this task, our analysis on foliage cover of G. pubescens shows that the interaction of pine oil and glyphosate treatments appeared to be very effective after six months, but were not so effective after 18 months. By contrast, seeding with native seeds was not particularly effective at six months, but its longer-term contribution appears to be effective at 18 months. Further, our results obtained from the seedbank abundance study indicate that time alone was not a significant factor in restoration of the grasslands (p = 0.165); however there were interactions with time, shown by time*glyphosate (p = 0.008) and time*seeding (p = 0.016). Both interactions indicated that the applications of glyphosate and seeding were more beneficial after 18 months compared to six months. However, full regeneration of invaded native grasslands may not be possible unless further restoration programs are re-implemented after the first cycle of G. pubescens’ treatments have been completed. Public Library of Science 2018-11-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6235253/ /pubmed/30427840 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203653 Text en © 2018 Mahmood et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mahmood, Ako H.
Florentine, Singarayer
Graz, Friedrich P.
Turville, Christopher
Palmer, Grant
Sillitoe, James
McLaren, David
Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia
title Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia
title_full Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia
title_fullStr Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia
title_full_unstemmed Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia
title_short Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia
title_sort comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, victoria, australia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6235253/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30427840
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203653
work_keys_str_mv AT mahmoodakoh comparisonoftechniquestocontroltheaggressiveenvironmentalinvasivespeciesgaleniapubescensinadegradedgrasslandreservevictoriaaustralia
AT florentinesingarayer comparisonoftechniquestocontroltheaggressiveenvironmentalinvasivespeciesgaleniapubescensinadegradedgrasslandreservevictoriaaustralia
AT grazfriedrichp comparisonoftechniquestocontroltheaggressiveenvironmentalinvasivespeciesgaleniapubescensinadegradedgrasslandreservevictoriaaustralia
AT turvillechristopher comparisonoftechniquestocontroltheaggressiveenvironmentalinvasivespeciesgaleniapubescensinadegradedgrasslandreservevictoriaaustralia
AT palmergrant comparisonoftechniquestocontroltheaggressiveenvironmentalinvasivespeciesgaleniapubescensinadegradedgrasslandreservevictoriaaustralia
AT sillitoejames comparisonoftechniquestocontroltheaggressiveenvironmentalinvasivespeciesgaleniapubescensinadegradedgrasslandreservevictoriaaustralia
AT mclarendavid comparisonoftechniquestocontroltheaggressiveenvironmentalinvasivespeciesgaleniapubescensinadegradedgrasslandreservevictoriaaustralia