Hi everyone! Is there a greater prevalence of invasive species in undisturbed landscapes or disturbed landscapes? I am thinking about the relationship between lawns/yards and why they seem to host so many more invasive species than elsewhere. Thank you!

Lawns are a very unique environment in that the whole point is to have just the one grass growing. This makes it much easier to see anything else growing in a lawn as invasive. Strictly speaking, many of the “invasive” plants seen in lawns are just non-natives that do well in a well there, but won’…

Not talking about lawns, but of course disturbed landscapes will have more invasives, most of them are ruderals or near that state, so disturbed soil can often be the only place where they survive.

I have an interesting ‘experiment’ going on in my front yard. A couple of years ago, that area needed regrading to prevent water from flowing towards the foundation of the house, so it was disturbed by essentially removing the layer of top soil including the lawn that was one it. The contractors sow…

The daunting invasives I see, are Australian wattles taking over the world after fire. Technically in relatively UNdisturbed land in Table Mountain National Park. In the Swartland wheatfields, abandoned fields can be covered in Patterson’s Curse.

My understanding has always been that, generally speaking, disturbed areas will harbor more invasive species because removing or reducing native species takes away a lot of competition for resources. In that situation, many invasive species can establish & grow earlier or more rapidly than native sp…

[image] gheaton: Places like the desert seem to be able to “reclaim” disturbed land given enough time. Deserts can be quite varied, but the nature of them in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico is such that disturbed sites fill quickly with Russian thistle (tumbleweeds) and that remains the dominan…

Kudzu seems to be a rather interesting case – according to Porcher & Rayner’s A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina, the plant doesn’t produce viable seeds in South Carolina. (I don’t know about elsewhere.) I know that when I was down that way last year I expected to see a lot more of the stu…

In south Carolina there are forest that are covered with kudzu and it kills the trees.

An article with some very good photographs of Kudzu taking over things.

Probably disturbed land. I get the impression that once you disturb land, you’re basically committed to continuing to disturb it. As Gheaton mentioned, probably different in each ecosystem, so don’t put too much weight in my localized musings. While many invasives can be out-shaded once a forest r…

Disturbed vs. Undisturbed Nature!

Nature Talk

wildlife13 August 22, 2022, 12:40am 21

I can testify to the privet, it is horrible.

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Disturbed vs. Undisturbed Nature!

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