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106 results for “encroachment”
Scrub encroachment promotes biodiversity in temperate European wetlands under eutrophic conditions
<p>Wetlands are important habitats, often threatened by drainage, eutrophication and suppression of grazing. In many countries, considerable resources are spent combatting scrub encroachment. Here, we hypothesize that encroachment may benefit biodiversity – especially under eutrophic conditions where asymmetric competition among plants compromises conservation targets. We studied the effects of scrub cover, nutrient levels and soil moisture on richness of vascular plants, bryophytes, soil fungi and microbes in open and overgrown wetlands. We also tested the effect of encroachment, eutrophication and soil moisture on indicators of conservation value (red-listed species, indicator species and uniqueness). Plant and bryophyte species richness peaked at low soil fertility, whereas soil fertility promoted soil microbes. Soil fungi responded negatively to increasing soil moisture. Lidar-derived variables reflecting degree of scrub cover had predominantly positive effects on species richness measures. Conservation value indicators had a negative relationship to soil fertility and a positive to encroachment. For plant indicator species, the negative effect of high nutrient levels was offset by encroachment, supporting our hypothesis of competitive release under shade. The positive effect of soil moisture on indicator species was strong in open habitats only. Nutrient poor mires and meadows host many rare species and require conservation management by grazing and natural hydrology. On former agricultural lands, where restoration of infertile conditions is unfeasible, we recommend rewilding with opportunities for encroachment towards semi-open willow scrub and swamp forest, with the prospect of high species richness in bryophytes, fungi and soil microbes and competitive release in the herb layer.</p>
CO2-fertilisation enhances resilience to browsing in the recruitment phase of an encroaching savanna tree
<p>1. CO<sub>2</sub>-fertilisation is implicated in the widespread and significant woody encroachment of savannas due to CO<sub>2</sub>-stimulated increases in belowground reserves that enhance sapling regrowth after fire. However, the effect of CO<sub>2</sub> concentration ([CO<sub>2</sub>]) on tree responses to the other major disturbance in savannas, herbivory, is poorly understood. Herbivory responses cannot be predicted from fire responses, as herbivore effects occur earlier during establishment and are moderated by plant palatability and defence rather than below-ground carbon accumulation.</p> <p>2. The relationship between herbivory and [CO<sub>2</sub>] is explored here using a widespread, strongly-encroaching savanna tree, <em>Vachellia</em> <em>karroo</em>. Using greenhouse-grown seedlings under past- through to predicted future-[CO<sub>2</sub>] (180–1000 ppm) and field-grown seedlings under ambient [CO<sub>2</sub>], we assessed plant survival, growth, defence and palatability.</p> <p>3. Increasing [CO<sub>2</sub>] improves the tolerance of greenhouse-grown seedlings to herbivory by stimulating growth and allowing a critical size-threshold associated with survival to be reached earlier, thereby decreasing the probability of fatal herbivory during the vulnerable recruitment phase. Elevated [CO<sub>2</sub>] also decreases the time taken to reach a second size-threshold linked to accelerated recovery of field-grown seedlings following herbivory. Seedling growth responses to increasing [CO<sub>2</sub>] are non-linear, suggesting that historic growth- and survival enhancements are smaller than those predicted for the future. Increasing [CO<sub>2</sub>] is associated with greater resistance to herbivores (more branched shoot architecture) but not leaf palatability (C:N ratio) or defence (leaf tannins and spine density).</p> <p>4. Increasing <em>V</em>. <em>karroo</em> densities already constitute a major land management problem in southern African savannas. However, encroachment by this species, and likely other savanna tree species, may be greatly exacerbated under future [CO<sub>2</sub>], as tolerance to herbivory at the recruitment stage is further enhanced. </p>
Understanding woody plant encroachment: A plant functional trait approach
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Carbon sequestration in intact rare ecosystems and their encroaching forests (Michigan, USA)
<p>Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are impacting global temperatures, ecological systems, and human societies. Natural carbon sequestration through the conservation of soil and native ecosystems may slow or reduce the amount of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere, and thus slow or mitigate the rate of global warming. Most of the research investigating carbon sequestration in natural systems occurs in forested ecosystems, however rare ecosystems such as coastal plain marshes and wet-mesic sand prairie collectively may serve as significant carbon sinks. Our objectives were to measure and assess the importance of carbon sequestration in three rare ecosystems (oak-pine barrens, coastal plain marsh, and wet-mesic sand prairie) in western Lower Michigan. We measured carbon in standing vegetation, dead organic matter, and soils within each ecosystem and adjacent encroaching forested areas. Driven by tree carbon, total carbon stocks in encroaching areas were greater than in intact rare ecosystems. Soil organic carbon was greater in all intact ecosystems, though only significantly so in coastal plain marsh. Principal components analysis explained 72% of the variation and revealed differences between intact ecosystems and their encroaching areas. Linear models using the ratio of red to green light reflectance successfully predicted SOC in intact coastal plain marsh and wet-mesic sand prairie. Our results infer the importance of these rare ecosystems in sequestering carbon in soils and support the need to establish federal or state management practices for the conservation of these systems.</p>
Mapping the potential habitat suitability, and opportunities of bush encroacher species in Southern Africa: a case study of the SteamBioAfrica project.
<p>Senegalia mellifera (Benth) Seigler & Ebinger. , Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight & Arn. and Terminalia sericea Burch. Ex DC., are three important bush encroacher species that contribute to the well-known ecological process named "thicketization" in Southern Africa. This issue has persisted for many years, impacting species distribution, plant communities, soil, and fauna dynamics. According to climate change projections, Southern Africa is expected to become drier and warmer in future scenarios, creating favourable conditions for proliferation of bush encroacher species.</p> <p>In the paper, we analyze the habitat suitability of these bush encroachers through MaxEnt 3.4.4 under three different future climate models and scenarios. Future projections were made using the shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) for greenhouse gas concentrations, specifically SSP245-585 across two-time horizons: 2041-2060 and 2061-2180. We utilized <a href="https://www.worldclim.org/data/cmip6/cmip6climate.html">WorldClim 1-km resolution climate data</a> from three global Earth System Models (ESMs) from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) that obtained better results than CMIP5 models (Bouramdane 2022; Mmame and Ngongondo 2024): the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Earth System Model (MPI-ESM1.2-HR), the Hadley Climate Center Earth System Model (UK-ESM1.0-LL) and the Institute Model for Numerical Mathematics (INM-CM5-0). </p>
Non-native vegetation encroachment drives functional turnover in island nematodes
<p>This community data matrix accompanies the manuscript "<span>Non-native vegetation encroachment drives functional turnover in island nematodes" by Adam Sharp, <span>Margarida Correia, Alan Gray, Rebecca Lawson, Martha Ledger, Noel Tawatao & Thomas Prior.</span></span></p>
Stakeholder perceptions of the impacts of shrub encroachment on rangeland ecosystem services
<p>While the impacts of shrub encroachment on the ecosystem processes have been well-documented, little is known about the extent to which socio-cultural values and perceptions might influence actions undertaken to manage shrub proliferation. Understanding stakeholder values is important because the ecosystem’s capacity to supply a given service or suite of services must be balanced against the value society places on them. Research to date has emphasized supply with little consideration of value, making it difficult to comprehensively or objectively evaluate trade-offs and set priorities, particularly when managing for one particular service or a suite of services may adversely affect another service or suite of services. To address this, we conducted a case study in southern Arizona and New Mexico (U.S.A.) to evaluate stakeholder perceptions of and preferences for various ecosystem services provided on semi-arid rangelands where shrub proliferation in grassland has impacted traditional livestock grazing. Perceptions of rangeland ecosystem services were elicited via a visually based landscape interpretation while preferences were quantified using best-worst scaling (BWS). Our findings suggest that stakeholders familiar with rangelands and their management generally perceive low shrub cover as providing a wider range of valued ecosystem services compared to rangelands with high shrub cover. Ecosystem service preferences in the context of shrub encroachment were generally uniform across all stakeholder groups (e.g. ranchers, state/federal governmental employees, non-governmental land managers, academicians, recreationists), with habitat for biodiversity and erosion control being identified as the most preferred. Our results suggest an opportunity for brush management to serve as a potential win-win management action if framed as a way to maintain or promote rangeland biodiversity and mitigate erosion.</p>
Data for: Steal the rain: Interception loses and rainfall partitioning by a broad-leaf and a fine-leaf woody encroaching species in a southern African semi-arid savanna
<p><span>Woody plant encroachment (WPE) has been found to alter ecosystem functioning and services in savannas. In rain-limited savannas, increasing woody cover can reduce streamflow and groundwater by altering </span>evapotranspiration rates and rainfall partitioning<span>, but the ecological relevance of this impact is not well known. </span><span>This study quantified the altered partitioning of rainfall by two woody plant structural types (fine- and broad-leaved trees) across a gradient of encroachment in a semi-arid savanna in South Africa. Averaged across both plant functional types, loss of rainfall through canopy interception and subsequent evaporation roughly doubled (from 20.5</span> to <span>43.6% of total rainfall) with a roughly 13-fold increase in woody cover (from 2.4 to </span>31.4 m<sup>2</sup>/ha tree basal cover). Spatial partitioning changes comprised <span>fourfold increases in stemflow (from 0.8</span> to <span>3.9% of total rainfall) and a decline in throughfall proportion of about two-fifths (from 80.2% to 47.3% of total rainfall). </span>Changes in partitioning were dependent on plant functional type; rainfall interception by the fine-leaved multi-stemmed shrub <em>Dichrostachys</em> <em>cinerea</em> was almost double that of the broad-leaved tree <em>Terminalia sericea</em> at the highest levels of woody encroachment (i.e., 49.7% vs 29.1% of total rainfall intercepted at tree basal area of 31.4 m<sup>2</sup>/ha). Partitioning was also dependent on rainfall characteristics, with the proportion of rainfall intercepted inversely related to rainfall event size and intensity. Therefore, increasing tree cover in African grassy ecosystems reduces the amount of canopy throughfall, especially beneath canopies of fine-leaved species in smaller rainfall events. Rainfall interception traits may thus confer a selective advantage, especially for fine-leaved woody plant species in semi-arid savannas. </p>
Agroforestry-based community forestry as a large-scale strategy to reforest agricultural encroachment areas in Myanmar: ambition vs. local reality
<p>Abstract: <br> Context: <br> The high rate of deforestation in Myanmar is mainly due to agricultural expansion. One task of the Forest Department is to increase tree cover in the encroaching farmland by establishing large-scale agroforestry-based community forests (ACFs).<br> Aim: <br> The objectives of this study were to analyze the adoption and performance of the ACFs in the agricultural encroachment areas in the Bago-Yoma region, Myanmar; and to provide recommendations to enhance the adoption of ACFs by farmers.<br> Methods: <br> We inventoried 42 sample plots and surveyed 291 farmers. Survey responses were analyzed by binary logistic regression, one-way ANOVA, and non-parametric correlation tests to evaluate factors influencing the adoption of ACFs. Stand characteristics were calculated from the inventory data to evaluate the performance of ACFs.<br> Results: <br> Our results show that farmer participation in ACFs was lower than stated in the registry of the Forest Department. Farmers practiced four different agroforestry designs in ACFs with different outcomes. The Forest Department strongly determined tree species and planting designs, farmers’ perception and participation in ACFs. Farmland size, unclear and insufficient information on ACFs, and a negative perception of raising trees in crop fields were the major factors limiting the adoption rates of ACFs. <br> Conclusion: <br> We recommend capacity building for farmers and Forest Department staff and raising awareness about the benefits of planting designs and trees on farmland. A stronger consideration of farmers’ preferences for design and species selection could increase their motivation to adopt ACFs and improve the long-term sustainability of ACFs.</p> <p> </p>
Interactive effects of plant litter type and yak excrement on litter decomposition in a shrub-encroached alpine meadow
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Carbon sequestration in intact rare ecosystems and their encroaching forests (Michigan, USA)
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Data from: Increased precipitation attenuates shrub encroachment by facilitating herbaceous growth in a Mongolian grassland
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Data from: Early detection of encroaching woody Juniperus virginiana and its classification in multi-species forest using UAS imagery and semantic segmentation algorithms
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Scrub encroachment promotes biodiversity in temperate European wetlands under eutrophic conditions
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Data from: Grazing-induced enhancement of shrub 'multifunctional island' effect is associated with altered soil bacterial β diversity in shrub-encroached grasslands
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CO2-fertilisation enhances resilience to browsing in the recruitment phase of an encroaching savanna tree
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Data for: Steal the rain: Interception loses and rainfall partitioning by a broad-leaf and a fine-leaf woody encroaching species in a southern African semi-arid savanna
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Data from: Soil carbon response to woody plant encroachment: Importance of spatial heterogeneity and deep soil storage
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Data from: Repeated clearing as a mechanism for savanna recovery following bush encroachment
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Woody encroachment happens via intensification, not extensification, of species ranges in an African savanna
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