Invasive Australian Acacia seed banks: Size and relationship with stem diameter in the presence of gall-forming biological control agents.

ABSTRACT: Australian Acacia are invasive in many parts of the world. Despite significant mechanical and biological efforts to control their invasion and spread, soil-stored seed banks prevent their effective and sustained removal. In response South Africa has had a strong focus on employing seed reducing biological control agents to deal with Australian Acacia invasion, a programme that is considered as being successful. To provide a predictive understanding for their management, seed banks of four invasive Australian acacia species (Acacia longifolia, A. mearnsii, A. pycnantha and A. saligna) were studied in the Western Cape of South Africa. Across six to seven sites for each species, seed bank sizes were estimated from dense, monospecific stands by collecting 30 litter and soil samples. Average es

SUBMITTER: Strydom M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5558976 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature