Cover

Half-title

Series-title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

1 Introduction

Weeds and the value of native species

The socio-economic background of plant introductions

Turning back the clock – is restoration possible?

Biological control as an approach to introduced weeds

Promoting ecosystem management for native species

Conclusions

2 Planet of Weeds: exotic plants in the landscape

The scope of the problem: how many and how costly are non-native plant species?

What’s in a name?

Patterns of plant introductions

The European invasion

The ecological theory of colonization and invasion

Landscape ecology and invasive species

How do corridors affect the spread of introduced species?

Landscape level patterns of invasion – the Lonsdale model

Conclusions

3 Biological invasions in the context of plant communities

Part 1 – Characteristics of native plant communities that influence plant invasions

Disturbance and succession

Grime’s C–S–R model of succession

Disturbance and the invasion of plant species

Herbivory and introduced plant species

Influences of generalist and specialist herbivores on community invasibility

Resistance of invasive species to grazing

Interspecific competition and plant invasion

Are more diverse communities less vulnerable to invasion?

Invasions and fluctuating resource availability

The concept of ‘niche opportunity’

Ecological niche modeling

Part 2 – The effects of invasive species on plant communities and ecosystems

Effects of invasive plants on plant diversity

Effects of introduced species on ecosystem functioning

Invasive species and the soil

Conclusions

4 Predicting invasiveness from life history characteristics

What are life history traits?

Vegetative reproduction

Time to first reproduction

Growth versus flowering

Seed germination and dispersal

Seed banks

Disturbance and seed persistence

Seed size and seed predation

Vegetative reproduction

Case study – Phragmites australis – a story of successful vegetative reproduction

Do life history characteristics predict invasiveness?

Predicting invasive species and the design of quarantine regulations

Conclusions

5 Population ecology and introduced plants

Why study plant populations?

What determines plant population densities?

Self-thinning and the 3/2 rule

Are plants seed limited?

Demographic parameters

Monitoring populations

Life tables and key factor analysis

Population ecology of vegetatively reproducing plants

Case study – Diffuse knapweed in British Columbia

Conclusions

6 Introduced plant diseases

Introduction

Chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica)

Joint introductions – common barberry and wheat stem rust

Sudden oak death and rhododendrons

White pine blister rust, Cronartium ribicola

Pandemics of Dutch elm disease, Ophiostoma ulmi and O. novo-ulmi

Introduction of fungi for biological control of weeds

Uromycladium tepperianum on Acacia saligna in South Africa

Puccinia chondrillina on Chondrilla juncea in Australia

The potential role of soil microbes in invasiveness

Preventing the introductions of plant diseases

Conclusions

7 Biological control of introduced plants

Introduction

How successful is biological control?

Quantifying biological success

Cost effectiveness

Remembering success

Can we predict successful agents and vulnerable plants?

Are certain plant types more susceptible to biological control?

Are certain plants more suitable for biological control?

Can we predict what will be a successful biological control agent?

How many agents are necessary for success?

Selecting the right agent

Are new associations of plants and insects more likely successful?

Historical perspectives – using the past to predict the future

Do seed predators make good biological control agents?

Is biological control safe?

Conclusions

8 Modeling invasive plants and their control

Introduction

The history of modeling biological control

Modeling the impact of seed predators

Another model of knapweed

A hypothetical, stochastic model of seed limitation

Models of Scotch broom

Simulation and analytical model of native populations of broom

Matrix models of introduced broom in North America

Combining population models and experiments

A model of biological control of Sida acuta in northern Australia

A model of biological control of tansy ragwort control in Oregon

The world is variable but models ar not

Modeling invasive plants – what have we learned?

Modeling invasions as they spread across habitats and landscapes

The concept of ‘nascent’ foci

What models tell us about detecting invasions

Invasion speed for structured populations

Slowing the spread

Conclusions

9 Action against non-indigenous species

Introduction

The scale of the problem

Manuals and advice

Physical control methods

Pulling and cutting

Non-targeted physical control

Chemical control of non-indigenous plant species

Costs and benefits of control

Assessing control of non-indigenous species

Eradication as a goal

Increasing the chances of successful control

Who should take responsibility for introduced species?

The uncertain status of some invasive species

Conclusions

10 Genetically modified plants and final conclusions

Genetically modified plants: another time bomb?

Some concluding remarks

Appendix – Some tools for studying plant populations

Introduction

Sampling methods

Point sampling for measuring cover, basal area or percent sward

Quadrat sampling

Size and shape of sampling units

The number of samples

Distance methods or plotless samples

The need for sampling – the need for measurement

Measuring biodiversity in plant communities

Species richness

Evenness

Heterogeneity

Measures of species richness

Rarefaction

Measures of heterogeneity

Simpson’s index

Shannon’s index

Measures of evenness

Concluding comments of measuring diversity

A picture is worth a thousand words – basics of GPS and GIS

GPS

Applications

GIS

Conclusions

References

Index