Folders: ROOT > ScienceBase Catalog > Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center > Invasive Species ( Show all descendants )
11 results (52ms)
Location
Folder
ROOT _ScienceBase Catalog __Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center ___Invasive Species
Filters
Date Range
Extensions Contacts Categories |
Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.; Euphorbiaceae) is a noxious weed accidentally introduced from Eurasia into North America in the late 1800s and early 1900s via multiple shipments of contaminated crop seed. It has spread extensively throughout pasture, rangeland, and natural areas in the Great Plains, inflicting substantial economic and ecological damage. Leafy spurge is unpalatable to most domestic and native ungulates and thus reduces carrying capacity of both rangeland and natural areas. In the four-state region including Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, costs due to control and reduced forage availability were estimated at $144 million annually. Department of Interior land managers will treat...
Categories: Project
Fire played an important role in shaping ponderosa pine forests of South Dakota’s Black Hills. Consequently, prescribed fire is an important management tool in restoring and maintaining the structure of these forests after nearly a century of fire suppression. Invasive plant species like Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) and common mullein (Verbascum thapsus) are sometimes associated with post-fire landscapes, however, so this project sought to determine strategies to reduce the chances of post-fire invasive species outbreaks. Partnering with the National Park Service’s Northern Great Plains Fire Management Office, this project tracked target invasive plants immediately before to two years after prescribed fires...
Categories: Project
The expansion of a European haplotype of Phragmites australis in the central Platte River is reducing habitat available for migrating sandhill and whooping cranes, and nesting piping plovers and least terns. An aggressive control program involving aerial herbicide application and disking to maintain open habitat is practiced. Our research has documented the time-course of the infestation and is seeking to understand the implications of the control methods for Phragmites expansion. Collaborators at the USGS Sediment Transport Lab in Golden, Colorado, are examining effects of Phragmites colonies on river morphology and sediment transport and deposition.
Categories: Project
Leafy spurge is an invasive Eurasian perennial introduced into the U.S. as a contaminant of crop seed in the 1880s and 1890s. It typically forms near-monocultures in rangelands and natural areas of the northern Great Plains. Because all parts of the plant contain latex, it is not consumed by naturally occurring herbivores or cattle, but the biological control program has been successful. Our studies have found, however, that the native vegetation does not necessarily return to sites after leafy spurge has been reduced by biological control. This portion of our long-term studies investigates the mechanisms by which leafy spurge dominates and limits recruitment of native plants. Such information will assist resource...
Categories: Project
Two exotic annual brome grasses ( Bromus tectorum and B. japonicus) have been a part of the northern Great Plains (NGP) landscape for more than a century, but their invasion in this region has accelerated since 1950. Despite their abundance and negative impact on native grasslands, management efforts to control annual bromes in NGP National Park Service units have been minimal. Spring and fall prescribed fires are used in NGP parks to manage fuel loads, control other non-native species, and maintain a vital ecosystem process, but serious concerns about their use in areas with annual brome grasses have arisen as new data have revealed the degree of invasion by these species in some NGP parks. NGP managers and...
Categories: Project
Tallgrass prairie is one of the most imperiled ecosystems on Earth, and nowhere more so than in the upper Midwestern United States. The persistence of tallgrass prairie, and the species it supports, are increasingly dependent on management actions to restore and reconstruct native prairie plant communities. The goal of this study was to improve the practice of prairie reconstruction on former cropland by experimentally testing the effects of seeding method (broadcast or drill), planting time (dormant or growing season), and seed mix diversity (10, 20 or 32 species), on cover and diversity of native prairie plants and cover of invasive exotic plants, especially the noxious weed, Canada thistle ( Cirsium arvense)....
Categories: Project
Control of invasive plants does not always result in return of a native plant community. The reasons could involve a depleted seed bank, changes in communities of mutualists either aboveground (e.g., pollinators or seed dispersers) or belowground (e.g., arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi), or changes in the identity or quantity of pathogens in the soil. In a series of linked studies, we have examined soil occupancy effects of leafy spurge, smooth brome, and crested wheatgrass and compared them with those of native plants. Our results suggest that invasive plants can change live components of soils in such a way as to reduce the vigor of native seedlings and improve establishment of invasive species. We have also examined...
Categories: Project
Much of the native prairie managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the northern Great Plains is extensively invaded by the introduced cool-season grasses smooth brome and Kentucky bluegrass. Management to suppress these invasive plants has had poor to inconsistent success. The central challenge to managers is selecting appropriate management actions in the face of biological and environmental uncertainties. In partnership with the Service, the U.S. Geological Survey developed an adaptive decision support framework to assist managers in selecting management actions under uncertainty and maximizing learning from management outcomes. The framework was built around...
Categories: Project
This “umbrella” topic encompasses all the work on invasive species within the Larson lab. Please see the specific projects for current and recent summaries. Publications for all the studies are linked here; publications associated with individual projects are also linked there.
The rare endemic plant, Eriogonum visheri A. Nelson is restricted to badlands formations in the northern Great Plains. It had been known from fewer than 100 locations in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota prior to a study at Badlands National Park in 2003-4 that added 65 new locations within the park. Conservation of E. visheri has therefore become a management goal for the park. As an annual plant inhabiting a stressful environment, adequate pollination and seed set is important. Invasive plants, notably Melilotus officinalis (L.) Lam. and Salsola tragus L. , commonly co-occur and flower concurrently with E. visheri, so assessing their effects on pollination and seed set is key to protecting the rare endemic....
Categories: Project
This is a new Technical Assistance task being developed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and cooperating partners. This information will be updated as the project proposal is developed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in collaboration with Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) propose vegetation control efforts to restore beach and dune habitat within Wilderness State Park (WSP). During the last ~20 years, Waugoshance Point within WSP has seen colonization by several invasive plant species, including spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa), sweet-clover (Melilotus spp.), and most recently, phragmites (Phragmites australis). Due to reduced lake elevation and associated reductions in winter...
Categories: Project
|
