The Effect of Artificial Mowing on the Competition of Phragmites australis and Spartina alterniflora in the Yangtze Estuary

Yue Yuan; Chao Zhang; Dezhi Li

doi:10.1155/2017/7853491

The Effect of Artificial Mowing on the Competition of Phragmites australis and Spartina alterniflora in the Yangtze Estuary

Scientifica (Cairo). 2017:2017:7853491. doi: 10.1155/2017/7853491. Epub 2017 Feb 28.

Authors

Yue Yuan¹, Chao Zhang², Dezhi Li³

Affiliations

¹ Research Institute of Forestry Policy and Information, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.
² Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science, Ministry of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China; State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China.
³ Department of Environmental Science, East China Normal University, 500 N. Dongchuan Rd, Shanghai 200241, China; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urbanization and Ecological Restoration, Shanghai, China; National Field Observation and Research Station in the Tiantong Forest Ecosystem of Zhejiang, Ningbo, China.

Abstract

Spartina alterniflora Loisel. is one of the most invasive species in the world. However, little is known about the role of artificial mowing in its invasiveness and competiveness. In this work, we studied the effect of mowing on its interspecific interactions with native species Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin ex Steud of the Yangtze Estuary, China. We calculated their relative neighbor effect (RNE) index, effect of relative crowding (D_r ) index, and interaction strength (I) index. The results showed that the RNE of Phragmites australis and Spartina alterniflora was 0.354 and 0.619, respectively, and they have competitive interactions. The mowing treatments can significantly influence the RNE of Phragmites australis and Spartina alterniflora on each other. Concretely, the RNE of Spartina alterniflora in the removal treatments was significantly higher than the value in the controls. But the RNE of Phragmites australis in the removal treatments was significantly lower than the value in the controls. Meanwhile, D_r of the two species on the targets was higher in the removal treatments than that in the controls, and the opposite was for I. We concluded that artificial mowing could promote the invasion of Spartina alterniflora by increasing its competitive performance compared with native species.