Plant community responses to the removal of Lonicera maackii from an urban woodland park.

invasive plant;Lonicera maackii;woodland restoration;invasive management;invasion;Kentucky

Elihu H. Levine

University:University of Louisville

Department:Biology

关键词: invasive plant;    Lonicera maackii;    woodland restoration;    invasive management;    invasion;    Kentucky;   

Others  :  https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3654&context=etd

美国|英语

来源: The Universite of Louisville's Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

Impacts of Lonicera maackii on native forest communities have been widely researched, but long-term responses of plant communities to the removal of this exotic shrub have not been extensively evaluated. The Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy removes exotic shrubs and vines to restore ecological processes and native species in the woodlands of Cherokee Park. Paired-plots were established in 2008 to gather baseline herb, vine, tree, and shrub community data. Honeysuckle was removed from one plot of each pair in 2009 and community data were gathered again in 2013. Native herb cover and richness, vine cover, and tree sapling abundance increased where honeysuckle had been removed. Higher summer herb cover was also correlated to sites with longer duration of L. maackii invasion and a more open tree canopy above. This suggests a legacy of L. maackii invasion on the forest community structure impacting herb communities, even 5 years after its removal.