Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Alien Grass Disrupts Reproduction And Post-Settlement Recruitment Of Co-Occurring Native Vegetation: A Mechanism For Diversity Decline In Invaded Forest?, Ben Gooden, Kris French, Sharon A. Robinson

Sharon Robinson

Invasive plants significantly threaten native plant biodiversity, yet the mechanisms by which they drive species losses and maintain their own dominance are poorly known. We examined the effects of alien grass invasion (Stenotaphrum secundatum) on (1) abundance and frequency of occurrence, (2) reproductive effort (flowering) and output (fruit production) and (3) soil seed banks for three focal native plants that are characteristic of endangered coastal forest of south-eastern Australia. First, we sampled and compared the foliage cover abundance and frequency (proportion of sites occupied) of the focal natives across invaded and non-invaded (reference) sites (n = 20). We then intensively …