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Are Competitive Effects Of Native Species On An Invader Mediated By Water Availability?, Tanya J. Mason, Kristine French, Ken Russell

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Question: Climate change processes could influence the dynamics of biotic interactions such as plant competition, especially in response to disturbance phenomena such as invasional processes. Are competitive effects of native species on an invadermediated bywater availability?

Location: Glasshouse facility, New SouthWales, Australia.

Methods: We constructed competitive hierarchies for a representative suite of species from coastal dune communities that have been invaded by the Asteraceae shrub, bitou (Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata). We used a comparative phytometer approach, where the invader species was grown with or without a suite of native species in glasshouse trials. This was used to construct competition hierarchies …

Impacts Of A Woody Invader Vary In Different Vegetation Communities, T J. Mason, K French

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The impact of an exotic species in natural systems may be dependent not only on invader attributes but also on characteristics of the invaded community. We examined impacts of the invader bitou bush, Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. rotundata , in fore and hind dune communities of coastal New South Wales, Australia. We compared invader impacts on vegetation structure, richness of both native and exotic growth forms and community variability in fore and hind dunes. We found that impacts of bitou invasion were context specific: in fore dune shrublands, functionally distinct graminoid, herb and climber rather than shrub growth forms had significantly …