Understanding vegetation dynamics provides insights to sustainable invasive plant management and remediation strategies

Title	Understanding vegetation dynamics provides insights to sustainable invasive plant management and remediation strategies
Publication Type	Conference Paper
Year of Publication	2003
Authors	Peters DC, Havstad K, Yao J
Conference Name	7th International Conference on the Ecology and Management of Alien Plant Invasions (ESA/WSSA Joint Meeting)
Date Published	November 3-7, 20
Conference Location	Fort Lauderdale, FL
ARIS Log Number	156247
Abstract	Our objective is to provide insights into the management of invasive species and remediation of native ecosystems using a combination of long-term studies of vegetation dynamics, short-term process-based experiments, and integrative simulation models. Throughout the western US, encroachment by native woody species into perennial grasslands has been occurring over the past 100 to 200 years. Permanent plots located at long-term research stations have documented this invasion process since the early 1900's. Recent analyses of these long-term data show high spatial variability in shrub invasion rates and grass persistence at the landscape scale. This high spatial variability in grass/shrub interactions and dynamics led to short-term experiments to identify the key processes influencing grass persistence on some sites and inability of grasses to recover on others. A simulation model that integrates key biotic processes and abiotic drivers was used to predict the sites most sensitive or responsive to remediation efforts and those sites most resistant to change. Thus, remediation strategies based on an integration of long-term observations, results from short-term experiments, and simulation model analyses have a greater probability of success than a single approach. These tools are also useful in improving our understanding and management of invasive species.