Sriramamurthy, RT, Bhalla, RS and Sankaran, M orcid.org/0000-0002-1661-6542 (2020) Fire differentially affects mortality and seedling regeneration of three woody invaders in forest–grassland mosaics of the southern Western Ghats, India. Biological Invasions, 22. pp. 1623-1634. ISSN 1387-3547
Abstract
Invasion by exotic woody species is a major concern in grasslands worldwide. Woody invasions pose a particularly serious threat to forest–grassland mosaics globally, but the factors influencing the success of woody species in these systems, including the role of disturbances such as fire, are not well understood. In this study, we evaluated the role of fire in influencing mortality and regeneration success of three globally widespread woody invasives, Acacia mearnsii (black wattle), Cytisus scoparius (scotch broom) and Ulex europaeus (gorse) in the montane forest–grassland mosaics of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, India. Our results indicate that mortality and regeneration responses to fire are species-specific. Fire-induced adult mortality was highest in scotch broom and lowest in gorse, and high, but variable in wattle. Burning greatly increased the abundance of gorse and wattle seedlings, but only marginally increased scotch broom seedling abundance. Fire effects on invasive seedling densities were most pronounced at the edges of invasive patches. Overall, our results indicate that fires are likely to differentially affect invasion patterns of these three species, with fire potentially encouraging invasion by gorse and wattle and discouraging invasion by scotch broom.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Biological Invasions. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Invasion; Fire; Acacia mearnsii; Cytisus scoparius; Ulex europaeus; Shola-grasslands |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Feb 2020 16:05 |
Last Modified: | 27 Jan 2021 01:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10530-020-02207-7 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:157677 |