Outdoor Home Gardener Preferences for Environmental Attributes in Gardening Supplies and Use of Ecofriendly Gardening Practices

Home gardeners’ concerns for the environment are expressed both in the ecofriendly gardening practices they use and in environmental attributes they prefer in the gardening products they purchase. This study uses data from a 2018 survey of 601 Tennessee outdoor home gardeners and a multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model to illustrate how outdoor home gardener demographics, expenditures, information use, and attitudes influence use of ecofriendly gardening practices and preferences for environmental attributes in home gardening supplies. Practices considered include planting pollinator plants, using rainwater collectors, composting, recycling gardening supplies packaging, using organic gardening methods, and use of soil testing. Gardening supply product attributes include decreased need for fertilizer, pesticides, and water; native plant species; organically produced products; and recyclable packaging. The most widely used practice is recycling gardening supplies packaging, and the least used is soil testing. Gardeners with a greater propensity to use the six gardening practices include male, college graduates, who spend relatively more of their income on gardening supplies, and consider themselves as being knowledgeable about environmental issues. The gardening supply product attribute most widely considered as important is decreased need for pesticides, and least widely considered as important are native species and organically produced. Gardeners more likely to prefer the six gardening supply product attributes include older gardeners, who seek other gardeners for information, and who perceived themselves as being knowledgeable about the environment. This same group likes to grow their own food and feels responsibility for protecting the environment for future generations.

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Emerging fungal pathogen of an invasive grass: Implications for competition with native plant species

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0237894 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. e0237894

Author(s):

Amy E. Kendig ◽

Vida J. Svahnström ◽

Ashish Adhikari ◽

Philip F. Harmon ◽

S. Luke Flory

Keyword(s):

Invasive Species ◽

Plant Species ◽

Fungal Pathogen ◽

Native Species ◽

Grass Species ◽

Leaf Spot Disease ◽

Native Plant ◽

Invasive Grass ◽

Native Plant Species ◽

Species Specific

Infectious diseases and invasive species can be strong drivers of biological systems that may interact to shift plant community composition. For example, disease can modify resource competition between invasive and native species. Invasive species tend to interact with a diversity of native species, and it is unclear how native species differ in response to disease-mediated competition with invasive species. Here, we quantified the biomass responses of three native North American grass species (Dichanthelium clandestinum, Elymus virginicus, and Eragrostis spectabilis) to disease-mediated competition with the non-native invasive grass Microstegium vimineum. The foliar fungal pathogen Bipolaris gigantea has recently emerged in Microstegium populations, causing a leaf spot disease that reduces Microstegium biomass and seed production. In a greenhouse experiment, we examined the effects of B. gigantea inoculation on two components of competitive ability for each native species: growth in the absence of competition and biomass responses to increasing densities of Microstegium. Bipolaris gigantea inoculation affected each of the three native species in unique ways, by increasing (Dichanthelium), decreasing (Elymus), or not changing (Eragrostis) their growth in the absence of competition relative to mock inoculation. Bipolaris gigantea inoculation did not, however, affect Microstegium biomass or mediate the effect of Microstegium density on native plant biomass. Thus, B. gigantea had species-specific effects on native plant competition with Microstegium through species-specific biomass responses to B. gigantea inoculation, but not through modified responses to Microstegium density. Our results suggest that disease may uniquely modify competitive interactions between invasive and native plants for different native plant species.

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Urban conservation gardening in the decade of restoration

10.32942/osf.io/p2syu ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ingmar Staude ◽

Josiane Segar ◽

Corey Thomas Callaghan ◽

Emma Ladouceur ◽

Jasper Meya ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Native Species ◽

Species Conservation ◽

Plant Conservation ◽

Native Plant ◽

Nature Protection ◽

Urban Conservation ◽

Native Plant Species ◽

Native Seed ◽

Conservation Gardening

Global commitments to species conservation have failed to halt systematic widespread declines in plant species. Current policy interventions, such as protected areas and legal species legislation, remain insufficient, and there is an urgent need to engage novel approaches and actors in conservation. Here, we propose that urban conservation gardening, namely the cultivation of declining native plant species in public and private green spaces, can be one such approach. Conservation gardening can address key (a)biotic drivers of species decline, act as a critical dispersal pathway and increase the occupancy of declining native species. We identify policy mechanisms to upscale conservation gardening to a mainstream activity by reforming the existing horticultural market into an innovative nature protection instrument. This involves incentivizing the integration of the native seed sector, leveraging existing certification and labelling schemes, promoting consumer access, as well as building citizen-science projects to foster public engagement. Mainstreamed conservation gardening can be an economically viable, sustainable, and participatory measure that complements traditional approaches to plant conservation.

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Seed dispersal interactions promoting plant invasions.

Plant invasions: the role of biotic interactions ◽

10.1079/9781789242171.0090 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 90-104

Author(s):

M. Celeste Díaz Vélez ◽

Ana E. Ferreras ◽

Valeria Paiaro

Keyword(s):

Seed Germination ◽

Seed Dispersal ◽

Seedling Establishment ◽

Native Species ◽

Native Plants ◽

Woody Species ◽

Native Plant ◽

Invasional Meltdown ◽

Native Plant Species ◽

Origin Life

Abstract Animal dispersers are essential for many non-native plants since they facilitate seed movement and might promote seed germination and seedling establishment, thereby increasing their chances of invasion. This chapter reviews the published literature on seed dispersal of non-native plant species by native and/or non-native animals. The following questions are addressed: (i) Are interactions between non-native plants and their animal dispersers evenly studied worldwide? (ii) Which are the distinctive traits (i.e. geographical origin, life form, dispersal strategy and propagule traits) of non-native plants that are dispersed by animals? (iii) Which are the most studied groups of dispersers of non-native plants around the world? (iv) Does the literature provide evidence for the Invasional Meltdown Hypothesis (non-native plant-non-native disperser facilitation)? (v) What is the role of animal dispersers at different stages of the non-native plant regeneration process? Our dataset of 204 articles indicates that geographical distribution of the studies was highly heterogeneous among continents, with the highest number coming from North America and the lowest from Asia and Central America. Most of the non-native plants involved in dispersal studies were woody species from Asia with fleshy fruits dispersed by endozoochory. More than the half of the animal dispersal agents noted were birds, followed by mammals, ants and reptiles. The dominance of bird-dispersal interactions over other animal groups was consistent across geographical regions. Although most of the studies involved only native dispersers, interactions among non-native species were detected, providing support for the existence of invasional meltdown processes. Of the total number of reviewed articles reporting seed removal, 74% evaluated seed dispersal, but only a few studies included seed germination (35.3%), seedling establishment (5.4%) or seed predation (23.5%). Finally, we discuss some research biases and directions for future studies in the area.

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Competition between native and non-native plants.

Plant invasions: the role of biotic interactions ◽

10.1079/9781789242171.0016 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 291-307

Author(s):

Elizabeth M. Wandrag ◽

◽

Jane A. Catford ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Plant Communities ◽

Native Species ◽

Abiotic Factors ◽

Invasion Biology ◽

Competitive Interactions ◽

Native Plant ◽

Native Plant Species ◽

New Locations ◽

Strength Of Competition

The introduction of species to new locations leads to novel competitive interactions between resident native and newly-arriving non-native species. The nature of these competitive interactions can influence the suitability of the environment for the survival, reproduction and spread of non-native plant species, and the impact those species have on native plant communities. Indeed, the large literature on competition among plants reflects its importance in shaping the composition of plant communities, including the invasion success of non-native species. While competition and invasion theory have historically developed in parallel, the increasing recognition of the synergism between the two themes has led to new insights into how non-native plant species invade native plant communities, and the impacts they have on those plant communities. This chapter provides an entry point into the aspects of competition theory that can help explain the success, dominance and impacts of invasive species. It focuses on resource competition, which arises wherever the resources necessary for establishment, survival, reproduction and spread are in limited supply. It highlights key hypotheses developed in invasion biology that relate to ideas of competition, outlines biotic and abiotic factors that influence the strength of competition and species' relative competitive abilities, and describes when and how competition between non-native and native plant species can influence invasion outcomes. Understanding the processes that influence the strength of competition between non-native and native plant species is a necessary step towards understanding the causes and consequences of biological invasions.

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The Shack Idea

Stories From the Leopold Shack ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190463229.003.0014 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Estella B. Leopold

Keyword(s):

Native Species ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Bird Species ◽

New Order ◽

Native Plant ◽

Native Plant Species ◽

Perfect Model ◽

Major Disruption ◽

The Right ◽

Splendid Isolation

As each of us siblings—Starker, Luna, Carl, Nina, and i— matured and entered our professional lives in different parts of the country, we carried with us a hankering to have a place in the country, a Shack of our own. It is not merely real estate, of course. Instead, it is a camping place for feeling close to the land, a place to work with the land and to observe the ecosystem and its fauna. To “own,” or as the first peoples saw it, to “belong” on a piece of land is exciting and special—a chance to become acquainted with a few favorite species, then to watch them grow. But of course it is way more than that. As Dad said, he chose his land for its backwardness, but it flourished in splendid isolation under our care. Shack land, as we conceived of it, had the potential of being inhabited by a vast number of native bird species, plus a diverse fauna of mammals, which got richer with time. We were excited that the Shack landscape itself had such physical variety; it had hills and dales, a grand river, a series of tributaries animated by spring and fall floods, a standing bottomland forest coursed by those floods and occupied by lively muskrats, with ducks flying in and out of the sloughs, as well as kingfishers and jays. Even though it was “degraded” agricultural land, Dad and Mother saw it as a land of opportunities for the family. While it had a “reduced level of complexity,” the soil was still there, and we could help improve it, which actually means that the right plants could make it better. Prairie is the perfect model for this kind of restoration and recovery. Dad described the upward flow of energy from soils through the plant community as a kind of circuit. After major disruption and loss of native species, the energy circuit is slowed and altered. He asked, “Can the land adjust itself to the new order?” He was sure it could if we reintroduced the native plant species on that cornfield, on that terrace, on that hill, in order for a genuine prairie, with its very efficient energy-flow, to become reestablished.

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Slash Pile Burn Scar Restoration: Tradeoffs between Abundance of Non-Native and Native Species

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11080813 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 813

Author(s):

Ian Sexton ◽

Philip Turk ◽

Lindsay Ringer ◽

Cynthia S. Brown

Keyword(s):

Plant Species ◽

Native Species ◽

Invasive Plant ◽

Chemical Properties ◽

Rocky Mountain ◽

Native Plant ◽

Burn Scar ◽

Native Plant Species ◽

Burned Areas ◽

Soil Scarification

The accumulation of live and dead trees and other vegetation in forests across the western United States is producing larger and more severe wildfires. To decrease wildfire severity and increase forest resilience, foresters regularly remove excess fuel by burning woody material in piles. This common practice could also cause persistent ecosystem changes such as the alteration of soil physical and chemical properties due to extreme soil heating, which can favor invasion by non-native plant species. The abundance and species richness of native plant communities may also remain depressed for many years after burning has removed vegetation and diminished propagules in the soil. This adds to the vulnerability of burned areas to the colonization and dominance by invasive species. Research into the use of revegetation techniques following pile burning to suppress invasion is limited. Studies conducted in various woodland types that investigated revegetation of pile burn scars have met with varying success. To assess the effectiveness of restoring pile burn scars in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, we monitored vegetation in 26 scars, each about 5 m in diameter, the growing season after burning. Later that summer, we selected 14 scars for restoration that included soil scarification, seed addition, and pine duff mulch cover. We monitored the scars for four years, pre-restoration, and three years post-restoration and found that the cover of seeded species exceeded the surrounding unburned areas and unseeded controls. The restoration seeding suppressed cover of non-native species as well as native species that were not seeded during restoration. Our results suggest that restoration of pile burn scars could be a useful tool to retard the establishment of invasive plant species when there are pre-existing infestations near scars. However, this must be weighed against the simultaneous suppression of native species recruitment. Monitoring for periods more than three years will help us understand how long the suppression of native and non-native species by restoration species may persist.

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Tests of Hexazinone and Tebuthiuron for Control of Exotic Plants in Kauai, Hawaii

Forests ◽

10.3390/f10070576 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (7) ◽

pp. 576

Author(s):

Wang ◽

Awaya ◽

Zhu ◽

Motooka ◽

Nelson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Invasive Plants ◽

Loblolly Pine ◽

Native Species ◽

Native Plants ◽

Early Period ◽

Metrosideros Polymorpha ◽

Native Plant ◽

Weed Species ◽

Invasive Weed ◽

Native Plant Species

Non-native plant species have become serious pests in Hawaii’s delicate island ecosystems. It is necessary to control invasive plants. The herbicides hexazinone and tebuthiuron were evaluated for defoliation efficacy to control several major invasive plants and for non-target effects on native plants at Site I in a rainforest at 1200 m elevation and Site II in a mesic area at 640 m elevation on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The invasive weed species in the sites included daisy fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus DC.), faya tree (Myrica faya Ait.), strawberry guava (Psidium cattleyanum Sabine), banana passion fruit (Passiflora mollissima Bailey), vaseygrass (Paspalum urvillei Steud.), and highbush blackberry (Rubus argutus Link. 1822). Native plants included ohia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha Gaudich.), naupaka (Scaevola cerasifolia Labill.), pilo (Hedyotis mannii), hona (Urera glabra (Hook. & Arn.)), aalii (Dodonaea viscosa Jacq.), and amau (Sadleria sp.). The results showed that broadcast applications of hexazinone granules and tebuthiuron pellets were effective on some of those invasive species. Herbicidal tolerance varied among the native species. For example, D. viscosa showed high tolerance to hexazinone. S. cerasifolia was susceptible to hexazinone, but not to tebuthiuron. The inconsistent defoliation of Sadleria sp. occurred among different applications rates of the two herbicides. M. polymorpha, particularly when it was small, could tolerate hexazinone and tebuthiuron. U. glabra was severely injured by the two herbicides. H. mannii was moderately tolerant to hexazinone, but fairly sensitive to tebuthiuron. The invasive loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) was highly tolerant to hexazinone, but was very sensitive to tebuthiuron. M. faya was very sensitive to hexazinone, but very tolerant to tebuthiuron. P. cattleyanum was sensitive to both herbicides. Six and nine months after hexazinone and tebuthiuron treatment, respectively, native plants were transplanted into the Sites to observe injury from residual herbicides. Approximately less than 10% mortality was observed for the out-planted native species three months after planting (MAP), indicating that the native species showed less injury in the early period of transplant. The mortality of the three endangered species Kauai hau kuahiwi (Hibiscadelphis distans), Kauai delissea (Delissea rhytidosperma H.Mann) and kawawaenohu (Alsinidendron lynchnoides), however, increased as the MAP increased. Overall, broadcast treatments of hexazinone and tebuthiuron at rates higher than 1 kg active ingredient per hectare would be problematic. The dissipation half-life values of hexazinone and tebuthiuron in the 1-15 cm layer of soils at the two sites were approximately 7 days and greater than 180 days, respectively.

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Native plant species richness on Eastern Polynesia’s remote atolls

Progress in Physical Geography Earth and Environment ◽

10.1177/0309133315615804 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 112-134 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sébastien Larrue ◽

Jean-François Butaud ◽

Pascal Dumas ◽

Stéphane Ballet

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Sea Level ◽

Plant Species ◽

Native Species ◽

Abiotic Factors ◽

Plant Species Richness ◽

Native Plant ◽

Volcanic Island ◽

Native Plant Species ◽

Native Species Richness

Which abiotic factors influence the number of native plant species on remote atolls is an important question to understand better the spatial pattern of the species observed on these low and vulnerable coral islands. However, this issue is still very poorly documented, often due to human degradation, partial botanical surveys or the difficult geographic access of remote atolls for researchers. The remote atolls of Eastern Polynesia, which are among the most isolated in the world, are of great interest for studies of native species’ distribution due to their isolation, low human density and urbanisation. In this study, we selected 49 remote atolls of Eastern Polynesia with complete botanical surveys to test the relative influence of eight abiotic factors on native plant species richness (i.e. indigenous and endemic species). Abiotic factors used as potential predictors included atoll area (km2), shoreline length (km), atoll elevation (m) and index of isolation (UNEP), but also the coastal index of the atoll ( Ic), the distance to the nearest similar atoll (km), the distance to the nearest large volcanic island ≥ 1000 km2 (here, Tahiti as a potential stepping-stone island) and the distance to the nearest raised atoll ≥ 15 m a.s.l. (here, Makatea or Henderson as a potential refugium during sea-level highstands). Spearman’s rank correlation, linear regression analysis and frequency diagrams were used to assess the relative influence of these factors on native species richness. No relationship was found between the species richness and the index of isolation or the distance to the nearest similar atoll. Atoll area and distance to the nearest raised atoll of Makatea explained 47.1% and 40%, respectively, of the native species richness variation observed on the remote atolls. The distance to the volcanic island of Tahiti and the coastal index explained 36.9% and 27.3% of the variation, while elevation and shoreline length explained 23.3% and 18.4% of the variation, respectively. Native species richness on the atolls surveyed increased with the increasing atoll area, elevation and shoreline length, but decreased with the increasing distance to the nearest raised atoll of Makatea and the large volcanic island of Tahiti. This supports the view that the spatial pattern of native species richness observed on the remote atolls was strongly influenced by (i) atoll area but also by (ii) the distance to the raised atoll of Makatea, and (iii) the distance to the volcanic island of Tahiti. This finding suggests that the raised atoll may be viewed as a refugium during sea-level highstands while the large volcanic island played the role of stepping-stone island, both islands influencing the dispersal of native species on remote atolls and attenuating the isolation effect in the study area.

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Cheatgrass invasion alters the abundance and composition of dark septate fungal communities in sagebrush steppe

Botany ◽

10.1139/cjb-2015-0237 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 94 (6) ◽

pp. 481-491 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Catherine A. Gehring ◽

Michaela Hayer ◽

Lluvia Flores-Rentería ◽

Andrew F. Krohn ◽

Egbert Schwartz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Community Composition ◽

Plant Species ◽

Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽

Native Species ◽

Invasive Plant ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Sagebrush Steppe ◽

Native Plant ◽

Native Plant Species ◽

Dark Septate Fungi

Invasive, non-native plant species can alter soil microbial communities in ways that contribute to their persistence. While most studies emphasize mycorrhizal fungi, invasive plants also may influence communities of dark septate fungi (DSF), which are common root endophytes that can function like mycorrhizas. We tested the hypothesis that a widespread invasive plant in the western United States, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.), influenced the abundance and community composition of DSF by examining the roots and rhizosphere soils of cheatgrass and two native plant species in cheatgrass-invaded and noninvaded areas of sagebrush steppe. We focused on cheatgrass because it is negatively affected by mycorrhizal fungi and colonized by DSF. We found that DSF root colonization and operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness were significantly higher in sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) and rice grass (Achnatherum hymenoides (Roem. & Schult.) Barkworth) from invaded areas than noninvaded areas. Cheatgrass roots had similar levels of DSF colonization and OTU richness as native plants. The community composition of DSF varied with invasion in the roots and soils of native species and among the roots of the three plant species in the invaded areas. The substantial changes in DSF we observed following cheatgrass invasion argue for comparative studies of DSF function in native and non-native plant species.

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The impacts of invasive plant species on the biodiversity of Australian rangelands

The Rangeland Journal ◽

10.1071/rj06014 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 27 ◽

Cited By ~ 58

Author(s):

A. C. Grice

Keyword(s):

Invasive Species ◽

Species Richness ◽

Plant Species ◽

Native Species ◽

Invasive Plant ◽

Plant Species Richness ◽

Native Plant ◽

Weed Species ◽

Ecological Processes ◽

Native Plant Species

Most parts of the Australian rangelands are at risk of invasion by one or more species of non-native plants. The severity of current problems varies greatly across the rangelands with more non-native plant species in more intensively settled regions, in climatic zones that have higher and more reliable rainfall, and in wetter and more fertile parts of rangeland landscapes. Although there is quantitative evidence of impacts on either particular taxonomic groups or specific ecological processes in Australian rangelands, a comprehensive picture of responses of rangeland ecosystems to plant invasions is not available. Research has been focused on invasive species that are perceived to have important effects. This is likely to down play the significance of species that have visually less dramatic influences and ignore the possibility that some species could invade and yet have negligible consequences. It is conceivable that most of the overall impact will come from a relatively small proportion of invasive species. Impacts have most commonly been assessed in terms of plant species richness or the abundance of certain groups of vertebrates to the almost complete exclusion of other faunal groups. All scientific studies of the impacts of invasive species in Australian rangelands have focused on the effects of individual invasive species although in many situations native communities are under threat from a complex of interacting weed species. Invasion by non-native species is generally associated with declines in native plant species richness, but faunal responses are more complex and individual invasions may be associated with increase, decrease and no-change scenarios for different faunal groups. Some invasive species may remain minor components of the vegetation that they invade while others completely dominate one stratum or the vegetation overall.

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