The energetic cost of plant organ construction is a functional trait that is useful for understanding carbon investment during growth (e.g. the resource acquisition vs. tissue longevity tradeoff), as well as in response to global change factors like elevated CO2 and N. Despite the enormous importance of roots and rhizomes in acquiring soil resources and responding to global change, construction...

Artificial aquatic habitats are ubiquitous in anthropogenic landscapes and highly susceptible to colonization by invasive plant species. Recent research into the ecology of infectious diseases indicates that the establishment of invasive plant species can trigger ecological cascades which alter the transmission dynamics of vector-borne pathogens that imperil human health. Here, we examined whet...

Uncrewed aircraft systems (UASs) are a popular tool when surveilling for invasive alien plants due to their high spatial and temporal resolution. This study investigated the efficacy of UAS equipped with three-band (i.e., red, green, blue; RGB) sensor identify Phragmites australis in multiple Minnesota wetlands using object-based image analysis (OBIA) machine learning (ML) algorithms: artificia...

The common reed (Phragmites australis) is a frequent dominant species in European wetlands. Yet, its performance can vary response to different combinations of environmental factors. This accounts for P. australis decline on deep-water sites, stable constructed wetlands with subsurface horizontal flow and expansion wet meadows. Reed stands provide habitats nesting, feeding or roosting vulnerabl...