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Exotic invasive plant species pose a serious threat to native biodiversity. Invasive plants transmogrify the landscape ecology in a highly complex manner leading to a sort of ecological explosion. Global terrestrials as well as aquatic ecosystems are invaded by various invasive plant species. Invasive species are alien species whose introduction and spread threatens ecosystems, habitats or species with socio-cultural, economic and/or environmental harm, and also poses a risk to human health. The present book aims to provide a critical review on the mechanisms, impact and management of invasive species, particularly in the context of plants. Plant invasion is now increasingly being recognised as a global problem and various continents are adversely affected, although to a differential scale. Invasive plants not only alter plant ecosystem functions, but also result in large economic costs from lost ecosystem services. The quest for ecological mechanisms behind the success of invasive species over native species has drawn the attention of researchers world-wide, particularly in the context of the diversity-stability relationship. The transport, colonisation, establishment and landscape spread are different steps in the success of invasive plants, and each and every step is checked through several ecological attributes. Furthermore, several ecological attributes and hypotheses (enemy release, novel weapon, empty niche, evolution of increased competitive ability etc.) were proposed pertaining to the success of invasive plant species. However, a single theory will not be able to account for the invasion success among all environments, as it may vary spatially and temporally. Therefore, in order to formulate a sustainable management plan for invasive plants, it is necessary to develop a synoptic view of the dynamic processes involved in the invasion process. Moreover, invasive species can act synergistically with other elements of global change, including land-use change, climate change, increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen deposition. Henceforth, a unified framework for biological invasions that reconcile and integrate the key features of the most commonly used invasion frame-works into a single conceptual model that can be applied to all human-mediated invasions will be developed.
This open access book describes the serious threat of invasive species to native ecosystems. Invasive species have caused and will continue to cause enormous ecological and economic damage with ever increasing world trade. This multi-disciplinary book, written by over 100 national experts, presents the latest research on a wide range of natural science and social science fields that explore the ecology, impacts, and practical tools for management of invasive species. It covers species of all taxonomic groups from insects and pathogens, to plants, vertebrates, and aquatic organisms that impact a diversity of habitats in forests, rangelands and grasslands of the United States. It is well-illustrated, provides summaries of the most important invasive species and issues impacting all regions of the country, and includes a comprehensive primary reference list for each topic. This scientific synthesis provides the cultural, economic, scientific and social context for addressing environmental challenges posed by invasive species and will be a valuable resource for scholars, policy makers, natural resource managers and practitioners.
The rapid growth of the discipline of aquatic ecology has been driven both by scientific interest in the complexities of aquatic ecosystems and by their enormous environmental importance and sensitivity. This book focuses on the remarkably diverse roles played by underwater plants, and is divided into three parts: 10 thematic chapters, followed by 18 case studies, and rounded off by three integrative chapters. The topics range from macrophytes as fish food to macrophytes as mollusc and microbe habitat, making this of interest to aquatic ecologists as well as limnologists, ecosystem ecologists, microbial ecologists, fish biologists, and environmental managers.
The loss to national economies resulting from excessive plant biomass has been appreciable and has put pressure on water managers to develop weed control procedures. The results from the most up-to-date research activities and field trials of leading aquatic plant scientists and managers in all five continents, aimed at resolving these weed problems, has been drawn together in this volume.
Aquatic plants refer to a diverse group of aquatic photosynthetic organisms large enough to be seem with the naked eye, and the vegetative parts of which actively grow either permanently or periodically (for at least several weeks each year) submerged below, floating on, or growing up through the water surface. These include aquatic vascular plants, aquatic mosses and some larger algae. Aquatic plants are grouped into life forms, each of which relates differently to limiting factors and has distinct ecological functions in aquatic ecosystems. Life form groups include emergent macrophytes (plants that are rooted in sediment or soils that are periodically inundated, with all other structures extending into the air), floating-leaved macrophytes (rooted plants with leaves that float on the water surface), submersed macrophytes (rooted plants growing completely submerged), free submerged macrophytes (which are not rooted but attached to other macrophytes or submerged structures) and free-floating macrophytes (plants that float on the water surface). Aquatic plants play an important role in the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems by altering water movement regimes, providing shelter and refuge and serving as a food source. In addition, aquatic plants produce large standing crops which can also stabilize sediments, accumulate large amounts of nutrients thus improving water healthy. Thus, because of their ecological role, aquatic plants are an important component of aquatic ecosystems. Aquatic plants are very vulnerable to human activities and global changes, and many species of the plants had become endangered in the past several decades due to habitat loss, flooding, damming, over foraging, biological invasion and eutrophication, which might not be halted but enforced in the future when more extreme weathers coincide with enhanced human activities.
This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book provides an unprecedented synthesis of the current status of scientific and management knowledge regarding global rangelands and the major challenges that confront them. It has been organized around three major themes. The first summarizes the conceptual advances that have occurred in the rangeland profession. The second addresses the implications of these conceptual advances to management and policy. The third assesses several major challenges confronting global rangelands in the 21st century. This book will compliment applied range management textbooks by describing the conceptual foundation on which the rangeland profession is based. It has been written to be accessible to a broad audience, including ecosystem managers, educators, students and policy makers. The content is founded on the collective experience, knowledge and commitment of 80 authors who have worked in rangelands throughout the world. Their collective contributions indicate that a more comprehensive framework is necessary to address the complex challenges confronting global rangelands. Rangelands represent adaptive social-ecological systems, in which societal values, organizations and capacities are of equal importance to, and interact with, those of ecological processes. A more comprehensive framework for rangeland systems may enable management agencies, and educational, research and policy making organizations to more effectively assess complex problems and develop appropriate solutions.
Modelling Invasive Alien Plant Species: Fuzzy Based Uncertainty presents the application of different fuzzy set theory techniques in developing risk assessment models for invasive plant species- those whose introduction and spread outside their natural range threatens local biodiversity. Invasion risk of species is expressed by biological traits which would be considered as the risk factors accompanied with uncertainty and imprecision. The book considers both quantitative and qualitative inputs in modelling the invasive risk by incorporating different mathematical models based on fuzzy set theory operators, interval methods, and fuzzy linguistic operators. The proposed models can be applied for investigating risk of invasive alien plant species in various regions and conditions. Features: Uniquely merges mathematical models with biological expressions. Presents different factor-based models as a case study on the risk of invasive alien plant species. Explains how users can perform primary-level risk assessment through fuzzy modeling techniques. Appropriate for upper-level students, researchers, and practicing professionals, this book shows how conventional approaches such as probability theory can be of limited use to solve issues of uncertainty, and how they fuzzy set theory plays a better role in understanding uncertain system dynamics, such invasive plant modelling.
Submersed auatic plants or macrophytes often contribute significantly to primary production in lakes and reservoirs. Macrtophyte growth and decomposition can influence the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of aquatic ecosystems, including temperature and concentrations of dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, inorganic carbon, detritus, phytoplankton, and fish. A mathematical model of submersed aquatic macrophyte growth and decomposition was developed for use with the US Army Corps of Engineers' one-dimensional reservoir water quality model, CE-QUAL-R1, which was developed under the Environmental and Water Quality Operational Studies (EWQOS). The ecological processes recommended for inclusion with the macrophyte compartment include: gross production, dark respiration, photorespiration, nonpredatory mortality, and grazing. The influence of these processes on other compartments in CE-QUAL-R1 is described. Select process equations have been validated using a stand-alone version of the recommended model based upon experimental results derived from the literature and other research at the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station for two macrophyte species, Myriophyllum spicatum and Hydrilla verticillata. Management control strategies can be simulated for mechanical harvesting and chemical control of the plants. Keywords: Aquatic ecology; Aquatic plants--Mathematical models; Eurasian watermillfoil; and Water quality management.
Invasion ecology is the study of the causes and consequences of the introduction of organisms to areas outside their native range. Interest in this field has exploded in the past few decades. Explaining why and how organisms are moved around the world, how and why some become established and invade, and how best to manage invasive species in the face of global change are all crucial issues that interest biogeographers, ecologists and environmental managers in all parts of the world. This book brings together the insights of more than 50 authors to examine the origins, foundations, current dimensions and potential trajectories of invasion ecology. It revisits key tenets of the foundations of invasion ecology, including contributions of pioneering naturalists of the 19th century, including Charles Darwin and British ecologist Charles Elton, whose 1958 monograph on invasive species is widely acknowledged as having focussed scientific attention on biological invasions.
