Livestock as a potential biological control agent for an invasive wetland plant

Invasive species threaten biodiversity and incur costs exceeding billions of US$. Eradication efforts, however, are nearly always unsuccessful. Throughout much of North America, land managers have used expensive, and ultimately ineffective, techniques to combat invasive Phragmites australis in marsh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2014-09, Vol.2, p.e567-e567
Main Authors: Silliman, Brian R, Mozdzer, Thomas, Angelini, Christine, Brundage, Jennifer E, Esselink, Peter, Bakker, Jan P, Gedan, Keryn B, van de Koppel, Johan, Baldwin, Andrew H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biocontrol
Biodiversity
Biological control
Biological pest control
Biology
Cattle
Clemmys
Costs
Ecology
Ecosystem biology
Ecosystems
Evaluation
Goats
Grazing
Herbicides
Herbivores
Horses
Introduced species
Invasive species
Livestock
Nonnative species
Phragmites
Phragmites australis
Plant introductions
Salt marshes
Science
Success
Top-down control
Vegetation
Wetlands
Wildlife conservation
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Summary:Invasive species threaten biodiversity and incur costs exceeding billions of US$. Eradication efforts, however, are nearly always unsuccessful. Throughout much of North America, land managers have used expensive, and ultimately ineffective, techniques to combat invasive Phragmites australis in marshes. Here, we reveal that Phragmites may potentially be controlled by employing an affordable measure from its native European range: livestock grazing. Experimental field tests demonstrate that rotational goat grazing (where goats have no choice but to graze Phragmites) can reduce Phragmites cover from 100 to 20% and that cows and horses also readily consume this plant. These results, combined with the fact that Europeans have suppressed Phragmites through seasonal livestock grazing for 6,000 years, suggest Phragmites management can shift to include more economical and effective top-down control strategies. More generally, these findings support an emerging paradigm shift in conservation from high-cost eradication to economically sustainable control of dominant invasive species.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.567