Effects of invasive japanese knotweed on diversity and structure of soil nematode communities

Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica): An analysis of capacity to cause structural damage (compared to other plants) and typical rhizome extension

10.7287/peerj.preprints.27023 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Mark Fennell ◽

Max Wade ◽

Karen L Bacon

Keyword(s):

Structural Damage ◽

Structural Integrity ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Japanese Knotweed ◽

Socioeconomic Impacts ◽

Fallopia Japonica ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Invasive Species Control ◽

The Uk

Fallopia japonica (Japanese knotweed) is a well-known invasive alien species in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe and North America. The plant is known to have a negative impact on local biodiversity, flood risk, and ecosystem services; but in the UK it is also considered to pose a significant risk to the structural integrity of buildings that are within 7 m of the above ground portions of the plant. This has led to the presence of the plant regularly being used to refuse mortgage applications. Despite the significant socioeconomic impacts of such automatic mortgage option restriction, little research has been conducted to investigate this issue. The ‘7 m rule’ is derived from widely adopted government guidance in the UK. This study considered if there is evidence to support this phenomenon in the literature, reports the findings of a survey of invasive species control contractors and property surveyors to determine if field observations support these assertions, and reports a case study of 68 properties, located on three streets in northern England where F. japonicawas recorded. Additionally, given the importance of proximity, the 7 m rule is also tested based on data collected during the excavation based removal of F. japonicafrom 81 sites. No support was found to suggest that F. japonicacauses significant damage to built structures, even when it is growing in close proximity to them and certainly no more damage than other plant species that are not subject to such stringent lending policies. It was found that the 7 m rule is not a statistically robust tool for estimating likely rhizome extension. F. japonica rhizome rarely extends more than 4 m from above ground plants and is typically found within 2 m for small stands and 2.5 m for large stands. Based on these findings, the practice of automatically restricting mortgage options for home buyers when F. japonicais present, is not commensurate with the risk.

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Nematode communities indicate the negative impact of Reynoutria japonica invasion on soil fauna in ruderal habitats of tatra national park in Slovakia

Global Ecology and Conservation ◽

10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01470 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 ◽

pp. e01470

Author(s):

Marek Renčo ◽

Andrea Čerevková ◽

Zuzana Homolová

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

Soil Fauna ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Reynoutria Japonica ◽

Nematode Communities ◽

Tatra National Park

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New Approaches on Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica) Bioactive Compounds and Their Potential of Pharmacological and Beekeeping Activities: Challenges and Future Directions

Plants ◽

10.3390/plants10122621 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (12) ◽

pp. 2621

Author(s):

Alexandra-Antonia Cucu ◽

Gabriela-Maria Baci ◽

Ştefan Dezsi ◽

Mircea-Emil Nap ◽

Florin Ioan Beteg ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bioactive Compounds ◽

Therapeutic Potential ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Ecological Impact ◽

Japanese Knotweed ◽

Future Directions ◽

Fallopia Japonica ◽

Beneficial Effects ◽

Health Promoting ◽

Pharmacological Potential

Known especially for its negative ecological impact, Fallopia japonica (Japanese knotweed) is now considered one of the most invasive species. Nevertheless, its chemical composition has shown, beyond doubt, some high biological active compounds that can be a source of valuable pharmacological potential for the enhancement of human health. In this direction, resveratrol, emodin or polydatin, to name a few, have been extensively studied to demonstrate the beneficial effects on animals and humans. Thus, by taking into consideration the recent advances in the study of Japanese knotweed and its phytochemical constituents, the aim of this article is to provide an overview on the high therapeutic potential, underlining its antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects, among the most important ones. Moreover, we describe some future directions for reducing the negative impact of Fallopia japonica by using the plant for its beekeeping properties in providing a distinct honey type that incorporates most of its bioactive compounds, with the same health-promoting properties.

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Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica): An analysis of capacity to cause structural damage (compared to other plants) and typical rhizome extension

10.7287/peerj.preprints.27023v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Mark Fennell ◽

Max Wade ◽

Karen L Bacon

Keyword(s):

Structural Damage ◽

Structural Integrity ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Japanese Knotweed ◽

Socioeconomic Impacts ◽

Fallopia Japonica ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Invasive Species Control ◽

The Uk

Fallopia japonica (Japanese knotweed) is a well-known invasive alien species in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe and North America. The plant is known to have a negative impact on local biodiversity, flood risk, and ecosystem services; but in the UK it is also considered to pose a significant risk to the structural integrity of buildings that are within 7 m of the above ground portions of the plant. This has led to the presence of the plant regularly being used to refuse mortgage applications. Despite the significant socioeconomic impacts of such automatic mortgage option restriction, little research has been conducted to investigate this issue. The ‘7 m rule’ is derived from widely adopted government guidance in the UK. This study considered if there is evidence to support this phenomenon in the literature, reports the findings of a survey of invasive species control contractors and property surveyors to determine if field observations support these assertions, and reports a case study of 68 properties, located on three streets in northern England where F. japonicawas recorded. Additionally, given the importance of proximity, the 7 m rule is also tested based on data collected during the excavation based removal of F. japonicafrom 81 sites. No support was found to suggest that F. japonicacauses significant damage to built structures, even when it is growing in close proximity to them and certainly no more damage than other plant species that are not subject to such stringent lending policies. It was found that the 7 m rule is not a statistically robust tool for estimating likely rhizome extension. F. japonica rhizome rarely extends more than 4 m from above ground plants and is typically found within 2 m for small stands and 2.5 m for large stands. Based on these findings, the practice of automatically restricting mortgage options for home buyers when F. japonicais present, is not commensurate with the risk.

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Long-Term Giant Hogweed Invasion Contributes to the Structural Changes of Soil Nematofauna

Plants ◽

10.3390/plants10102103 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 2103

Author(s):

Marek Renčo ◽

Jana Jurová ◽

Erika Gömöryová ◽

Andrea Čerevková

Keyword(s):

Structural Changes ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Nematode Species ◽

Species Number ◽

Parasitic Nematodes ◽

Native Plant ◽

Soil Mesofauna ◽

Native Plant Species ◽

Nematode Communities ◽

Heracleum Mantegazzianum

Heracleum mantegazzianum (giant hogweed) is the largest central European forb, naturalized or invasive in many European countries. The impacts of its colonization of native habitats on soil mesofauna groups are unfortunately obscure. This study assessed the effect of giant hogweed invasion on the communities of plants and soil nematodes in the riparian habitat. We found that invasion by H. mantegazzianum increased soil pH, decreased carbon and nitrogen content, reduced the number and coverage of the native plant species, and influenced nematode communities and their structures. Nematode species number was significantly lower in invaded than uninvaded plots, but nematode species diversity was not affected by invasion throughout the whole study. Total nematode abundance slightly increased under giant hogweed, while total nematode biomass did not differ between the invaded and uninvaded plots. The higher abundance of bacterivores and fungivores but lower number of omnivorous nematodes well represented the negative impact of giant hogweed invasion on soil food webs, supported by low values of all maturity indices or channel index. The hogweed invaded plots contained higher abundance of plant parasitic nematodes, mainly Paratylenchus microdorus. Our results thus indicate that invasion by H. mantegazzianum influences several nematode communities’ parameters while others remain unaffected by invasion.

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Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica): an analysis of capacity to cause structural damage (compared to other plants) and typical rhizome extension

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.5246 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e5246 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Mark Fennell ◽

Max Wade ◽

Karen L. Bacon

Keyword(s):

Structural Damage ◽

Structural Integrity ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Japanese Knotweed ◽

Socioeconomic Impacts ◽

Fallopia Japonica ◽

Invasive Species Control ◽

Residential Properties ◽

The Uk

Fallopia japonica (Japanese knotweed) is a well-known invasive alien species in the UK and elsewhere in Europe and North America. The plant is known to have a negative impact on local biodiversity, flood risk and ecosystem services; but in the UK it is also considered to pose a significant risk to the structural integrity of buildings that are within seven m of the above ground portions of the plant. This has led to the presence of the plant on residential properties regularly being used to refuse mortgage applications. Despite the significant socioeconomic impacts of such automatic mortgage option restriction, little research has been conducted to investigate this issue. The ‘seven-m rule’ is derived from widely adopted government guidance in the UK. This study considered if there is evidence to support this phenomenon in the literature, reports the findings of a survey of invasive species control contractors and property surveyors to determine if field observations support these assertions, and reports a case study of 68 properties, located on three streets in northern England where F. japonica was recorded. Additionally, given the importance of proximity, the seven-m rule is also tested based on data collected during the excavation based removal of F. japonica from 81 sites. No support was found to suggest that F. japonica causes significant damage to built structures, even when it is growing in close proximity to them and certainly no more damage than other plant species that are not subject to such stringent lending policies. It was found that the seven-m rule is not a statistically robust tool for estimating likely rhizome extension. F. japonica rhizome rarely extends more than four m from above ground plants and is typically found within two m for small stands and 2.5 m for large stands. Based on these findings, the practice of automatically restricting mortgage options for home buyers when F. japonica is present, is not commensurate with the risk.

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Windstorms as mediator of soil nematode community changes: Evidence from European spruce forest

Helminthologia ◽

10.1515/helm-2017-0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 54 (1) ◽

pp. 36-47 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

M. Renčo ◽

A. Čerevková

Keyword(s):

Species Diversity ◽

Nematode Species ◽

Maturity Index ◽

Forest Damage ◽

Soil Nematode ◽

Spruce Forest ◽

Nematode Communities ◽

Soil Ecosystems ◽

Before And After ◽

Tatra National Park

Summary Nematode communities in a Norway spruce forest in High Tatra National Park, Slovakia were monitored for the period of several years (2006 and 2013). Unfortunately, in May 2014 natural windstorm damaged the forest. This disastrous event, together with preliminary obtained results allowed us to compare the direct impact of windstorm damage of forest habitat on soil nematode assemblages. The forest destruction by windstorm had a significant effect on the total nematode abundance, the abundance of omnivores and herbivores, as well as the nematode species diversity. The most dominant species, representing 55 % of the total nematode fauna, in the plot studied were Acrobeloides nanus followed by Malenchus exiguus, Filenchus vulgaris, Plectus communis, Plectus parvus and Tylencholaimus mirabilis. The abundance of bacterivorous signifi cantly increased after the windstorm, meanwhile the abundance of omnivores, fungivores, and herbivores ectoparasites and epidermal/root hair feeders showed an opposite trend. Of the evaluative indicators, Shannon species diversity (H’spp), maturity index (MI), maturity index 2-5 (MI2-5), sigma maturity index (ΣMI), enrichment index (EI) and structure index (SI) decreased significantly after windstorm. The EI and SI indexes characterized soil ecosystems before windstorm (2006 - 2013) as maturing with low or moderate disturbance, but soil ecosystems shortly after the windstorm (2014) were degraded and nutrient depleted. This also corresponded with graphical display of metabolic footprints characteristics of soil food web. Overall, the nematode communities differed significantly before and after forest damage. These results suggest the role of nematode communities as indicators of environment condition quality or its disruption.

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Altitudinal gradient affect abundance, diversity and metabolic footprint of soil nematodes in Banihal-Pass of Pir-Panjal mountain range

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-95651-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Shahid Afzal ◽

Humira Nesar ◽

Zarrin Imran ◽

Wasim Ahmad

Keyword(s):

Elevation Gradient ◽

Carbon Assimilation ◽

Shannon Index ◽

Nematode Community ◽

Mountain Range ◽

Soil Nematode ◽

Nematode Communities ◽

Nematode Abundance ◽

Belowground Carbon ◽

Abundance And Diversity

AbstractDespite enormous diversity, abundance and their role in ecosystem processes, little is known about how community structures of soil-inhabiting nematodes differ across elevation gradient. For this, soil nematode communities were investigated along an elevation gradient of 1000–2500 masl across a temperate vegetation in Banihal-Pass of Pir-Panjal mountain range. We aimed to determine how the elevation gradient affect the nematode community structure, diversity and contribution to belowground carbon assimilation in the form of metabolic footprint. Our results showed that total nematode abundance and the abundance of different trophic groups (fungivores, herbivores and omnivores) declined with the increase of elevation. Shannon index, generic richness and evenness index indicated that nematode communities were more diverse at lower elevations and declined significantly with increase in elevation. Nematode community showed a pattern of decline in overall metabolic footprint with the increase of elevation. Nematode abundance and diversity proved to be more sensitive to elevation induced changes as more abundant and diverse nematode assemblage are supported at lower elevations. Overall it appears nematode abundance, diversity and contribution to belowground carbon cycling is stronger at lower elevations and gradually keep declining towards higher elevations under temperate vegetation cover in Banihal-pass of Pir-Panjal mountain range.

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Invasive Plants in Support of Urban Farming: Fermentation-Based Organic Fertilizer from Japanese Knotweed

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11061232 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1232

Author(s):

Rozalija Cvejić ◽

Susanne Klages ◽

Marina Pintar ◽

Lara Resman ◽

Ana Slatnar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Invasive Plants ◽

Chinese Cabbage ◽

Organic Fertilizer ◽

Farmyard Manure ◽

Japanese Knotweed ◽

Perennial Crop ◽

Fallopia Japonica ◽

Suitable Alternative ◽

Cropping Patterns ◽

Average Mass

In this study, fermentation-based organic fertilizer (OF) was produced from the aboveground parts of Fallopia japonica (Houtt.) Ronse Decr. The quantity of N in OF (17.2 kg t−1 fresh lactic-fermented OF) was higher than average in cattle farmyard manure, but on a comparable level to solid poultry and rabbit manure. The OF was applied on a field to evaluate its effect on Chinese cabbage. The applied nutrients with OF N159 were 159, 44 and 121 kg ha−1 for N, P, and K, respectively. The applied nutrients with OF N317 were 317, 38, and 200 kg ha−1 for N, P, and K, respectively. The average mass of marketable Chinese cabbage (Brassica pekinensis Rupr.) single heads ranged from 253 g with N0 treatment to 602 g with N317 treatment. The nutrient recovery efficiency REN,P,K was 37, 20, and 50% for N317 and 55, 48, and 77% for N159. The OF was found to be a suitable alternative to farmyard manure. Additionally, OF produced from F. japonica could complement existing approaches to limit the spread of invasive species in cities. Further research should focus on perennial crop rotations and cropping patterns, different soil types, and a greater variety of crops and consider the possible retention of urban farmers using fertilizer from invasive plants.

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