Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- 1 Testing hypotheses about biological invasions and Charles Darwin’s two-creators rumination
- Part I Ancient invaders
- Part II Modern invaders
- 13 Invasion by woody shrubs and trees
- 14 Modern tree colonisers from Australia into the rest of the world
- 15 Failed introductions: finches from outside Australia
- 16 The skylark
- 17 Why northern hemisphere waders did not colonise the south
- 18 Weak migratory interchange by birds between Australia and Asia
- 19 Introducing a new top predator, the dingo
- 20 The European rabbit
- 21 The rise and fall of the Asian water buffalo in the monsoonal tropics of northern Australia
- 22 A critique of ecological theory and a salute to natural history
- Index
- References
13 - Invasion by woody shrubs and trees
from Part II - Modern invaders
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- 1 Testing hypotheses about biological invasions and Charles Darwin’s two-creators rumination
- Part I Ancient invaders
- Part II Modern invaders
- 13 Invasion by woody shrubs and trees
- 14 Modern tree colonisers from Australia into the rest of the world
- 15 Failed introductions: finches from outside Australia
- 16 The skylark
- 17 Why northern hemisphere waders did not colonise the south
- 18 Weak migratory interchange by birds between Australia and Asia
- 19 Introducing a new top predator, the dingo
- 20 The European rabbit
- 21 The rise and fall of the Asian water buffalo in the monsoonal tropics of northern Australia
- 22 A critique of ecological theory and a salute to natural history
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
The invasion of many habitats by exotic shrubs and trees has been an important factor causing changes in Australian native vegetation through declines in species richness, changes to community composition and reducing ecosystem function (Lindsay and French 2004; Gosper et al. 2006; Mason and French 2007; Gooden et al. 2009). Costs of management have been high (Sinden et al. 2004) and research into management options extensive. Whilst management-oriented research places Australia at the leading edge of the field (Briese 2004), this has been at the expense of research testing hypotheses about mechanisms of invasion in Australia.
Information on the novel distribution, population dynamics and ecology of the majority of invasive species is largely unknown. Ten species of exotic woody shrub or small tree are among the 20 Weeds of National Significance (WoNS) classified by the Australian Federal Government, reflecting their extensive current and/or projected impact on native and agricultural communities. Funding for weed research is largely focused on these WoNS but directed specifically to the development of successful management options. Very little is directed to understanding invasion or impacts. Additionally, a further 100 shrubs and trees (and more herbs, grasses and vines) are known as significant environmental weeds and described in a range of land management resources (e.g. http://www.weeds.org.au). Almost nothing is understood about these species. Many invasive shrubs and trees have invaded from horticultural stock, and the species may differ from native stock (e.g. Lantana camara L., lantana, Figure 13.1) causing difficulties in both management and in understanding ecological consequences.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Invasion Biology and Ecological TheoryInsights from a Continent in Transformation, pp. 285 - 303Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014