Plant Invasion and Biodiversity Patterns at a Maryland Preserve

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dc.contributor.advisorSouthgate, Emily
dc.contributor.advisorCarney, Susan
dc.contributor.authorMoxley, Angela
dc.contributor.departmentBiologyen_US
dc.contributor.programEnvironmental Biologyen_US
dc.date.accessioned2019-11-18T21:38:25Z
dc.date.available2019-11-18T21:38:25Z
dc.date.issued2019-11-18
dc.description.abstractThe Audubon Society of Central Maryland’s 55-hectare Fred J. Archibald Audubon Sanctuary in Maryland’s Piedmont physiographic region is an important wildlife habitat under threat from residential and commercial development that will soon be encroaching on all sides. The potential fostering of nonnative plant species by this development poses a significant risk to native plant biodiversity at the preserve, with resulting impacts to higher trophic levels, particularly phytophagous insects and insectivorous birds. Plant communities in 12 field and forest stands throughout the preserve were sampled for species presence/absence and percent cover. Various biodiversity measures were calculated for each habitat, including richness, alpha diversity, beta diversity, and nonnative cover. Three nonnative plant species in particular were found to be encroaching on certain plant communities at the preserve: Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stiltgrass), Persicaria longiseta (oriental smartweed), and Celastrus orbiculatus (Oriental bittersweet), of which the latter may present the most substantial concern, especially to the overstory of forested stands. Although nonnative cover was high in certain stands, pockets of native biodiversity persisted, suggesting the continued importance of these areas to native fauna. Combinations of native and nonnative diversity measures present a potential schema for assigning management regimes to stands, with strategies ranging from low to intense levels of management.en_US
dc.format.extent40 pagesen_US
dc.genreindependent research projecten_US
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/m2lda7-bjj5
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/16359
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtHood College
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/*
dc.subjectinvasive plantsen_US
dc.subjectnative plantsen_US
dc.subjectvegetationen_US
dc.subjectbiodiversityen_US
dc.subjectbiodiversity conservationen_US
dc.subjectnatural resources managementen_US
dc.titlePlant Invasion and Biodiversity Patterns at a Maryland Preserveen_US
dc.typeTexten_US

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