Ecological Principles Underpinning Invasive Plant Management Tools and Strategies

Abstract

The broad focus of ecologically based invasive plant management (EBIPM) is to identify and repair the major ecological processes facilitating plant invasion. To be useful, however, EBIPM requires that our application of management tools and strategies be based on ecological principles that determine the rate and direction of plant community change.1 As a working de ni- tion, we can view ecological principles as factors that in uence the relative abundance of desired and invasive plants. For example, one widely identi ed principle may be that more- frequent and intense  res favor the spread of invasive, annual grasses over native, perennial grasses. The formulation of this principle is based on detailed knowledge of the differences in seed production, growth rate, and life history of these spe- cies groups. However, we can also think of certain weeds and native plants where this principle may not hold. What this means is that ecological principles are not  xed rules but, in- stead, are rules that hold under certain sets of conditions. In the above example of invasive annual grasses and  re cycles, these conditions are set by the physiological, developmental, and morphological differences commonly observed between invasive, annual and native, perennial grasses.

DOI: 10.2458/azu_rangelands_v34i6_james