Comparison of techniques to control the aggressive environmental invasive species Galenia pubescens in a degraded grassland reserve, Victoria, Australia

PLoS One. 2018 Nov 14;13(11):e0203653. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203653. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Across many southern regions of Australia, native grasslands have become seriously threatened by human activity, with only a fraction of the original areas remaining undisturbed. In particular, the introduction and establishment of exotic invasive weeds has caused significant degradation to the ecosystems in these areas by contributing to a decrease in native plant density and diversity, and this has ultimately led to major changes to the ecosystem structure and function. One such example is Galenia pubescens. Our objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of four different attempts to control G. pubescens: herbicide control with glyphosate; organic herbicide control with pine oil; the application of mulch; and the addition of seeds of native species to the seedbank. Results shows that any one single control strategy is insufficient to control G. pubescens, and, in addition, it has shown that regeneration of native vegetation is limited unless direct seeding is applied. There was a strong indication that a combined strategy employing more than two of the aforementioned techniques is likely to be the most effective approach, at least in the short term. Underscoring the complexity of this task, our analysis on foliage cover of G. pubescens shows that the interaction of pine oil and glyphosate treatments appeared to be very effective after six months, but were not so effective after 18 months. By contrast, seeding with native seeds was not particularly effective at six months, but its longer-term contribution appears to be effective at 18 months. Further, our results obtained from the seedbank abundance study indicate that time alone was not a significant factor in restoration of the grasslands (p = 0.165); however there were interactions with time, shown by time*glyphosate (p = 0.008) and time*seeding (p = 0.016). Both interactions indicated that the applications of glyphosate and seeding were more beneficial after 18 months compared to six months. However, full regeneration of invaded native grasslands may not be possible unless further restoration programs are re-implemented after the first cycle of G. pubescens' treatments have been completed.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aizoaceae / growth & development*
  • Grassland*
  • Introduced Species*
  • Models, Biological*
  • Victoria

Grants and funding

Ako H. Mahmood was on PhD scholarship from Collaborative Research Network, Federation University Australia, Scholarship, Singarayer Florentine received Federation University Australia Salary, Grant Palmer received Federation University Australia Salary, Sandra Weller received Federation University Australia Salary, Bhagirath S. Chauhan received University of Queensland Salary, and Friedrich P. Graz received Central Queensland University Salary. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.