Like all grasslands across North America, the distribution of desert grasslands has been reduced markedly, and remnants have been altered extensively by humans. In Arizona, NewMexico, Texas, USA, and in Mexico, desert grasslands have been invaded by dozens of non-native plants, especially perennial grasses that evolved in arid systems with similar climate and disturbance regimes. In desert gras...

Like all grasslands across North America, the distribution of desert grasslands has been reduced markedly, and remnants have been altered extensively by humans. In Arizona, NewMexico, Texas, USA, and in Mexico, desert grasslands have been invaded by dozens of non-native plants, especially perennial grasses that evolved in arid systems with similar climate and disturbance regimes. In desert gras...

Invasive exotic plants are aggressively competing with native plant species in Florida. In some situations, infested habitats will no longer support native wildlife, and endangered plants and animals are being pushed closer to extinction. Managers of these natural areas are finding herbicide treatments to be the most effective and economical way to control exotic plants with minimal risk to nat...

Soil salinity restricts plant growth and productivity. Na(+) represents the major ion causing toxicity because it competes with K(+) for binding sites at the plasma membrane. Inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can alleviate salt stress in the host plant through several mechanisms. These may include ion selection during the fungal uptake of nutrients from the soil or during tran...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Invasive plants are potential agents of disruption in plant-pollinator interactions. They may affect pollinator visitation rates to native plants and modify the plant-pollinator interaction network. However, there is little information about the extent to which invasive pollen is incorporated into the pollination network and about the rates of invasive pollen deposition on t...

Invasive plants are sometimes considered to be more competitive than their native conspecifics, according to the prediction that the invader reallocates resources from defense to growth due to liberation of natural enemies ['Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability' (EICA) hypothesis]. However, the differences in competitive ability may depend on the identity of competitors. In order to test ...

Widespread replacement of native ecosystems by productive land sometimes results in the outbreak of a native species. In New Zealand, the introduction of exotic pastoral plants has resulted in diet alteration of the native coleopteran species, Costelytra zealandica (White) (Scarabaeidae) such that this insect has reached the status of pest. In contrast, C. brunneum (Broun), a congeneric species...

First, a geographical barrier must be overcome, which often occurs as a mountain range, ocean, or similar physical barrier to movement of seeds and other reproductive plant parts. Plants that overcome geographical barriers are known as alien plants or alien species. Alien plants are non-native plants and alien species are nonnative species. Therefore, non-native plants are those that occur outs...

Two venerable hypotheses, widely cited as explanations for either the success or failure of introduced species in recipient communities, are the natural enemies hypothesis and the biotic resistance hypothesis. The natural enemies hypothesis posits that introduced organisms spread rapidly because they are liberated from their co-evolved predators, pathogens and herbivores. The biotic resistance ...