Assessment and Management of Plant Invasions [Paperback]

Biological invasion of native plant communities is a high-priority problem in the field of environmental management. Resource managers, biologists, and all those involved in plant communities must consider ecological interactions when assessing both the effects of plant invasion and the long-term effects of management. Sections of the book cover human perceptions of invading plants, assessment of ecological interactions, direct management, and regulation and advocacy. It also includes an appendix with descriptive data for many of the worst weeds.Biological invasion of native plant communities is a high-priority problem in the field of environmental management. Resource managers, biologists, and all those involved in plant communities must consider ecological interactions when assessing both the effects of plant invasion and the long-term effects of management. Sections of the book cover human perceptions of invading plants, assessment of ecological interactions, direct management, and regulation and advocacy. It also includes an appendix with descriptive data for many of the worst weeds.SECTION I. Human Perceptions.- 1. Defining Indigenous Species: An Introduction.- Defining Native Species.- Mechanisms for Change in Species Distributions.- Humans as a Component of the Natural.- Consequences of Choosing a Definition.- Conclusions.- 2. Defining Weeds of Natural Areas.- Definitions of Weed.- Definition and Examples of Natural-Area Weeds.- Adaptive Management of Natural-Area Weeds.- Conclusions.- 3. Potential Valuable Ecological Functions of Nonindigenous Plants.- Assessing Potential Ecological Values of Nonindigenous Plants.- Case Histories and Examples: Anecdotal, Hypothetical, and Otherwise.- Future Ecological Values of Nonindigenous Plants in a Changing Global Environment.- Conclusions.- SECTION II. Assessment of Ecological Interactions.- 4. Documenting Natural and Human-Caused Plant Invasions Using Paleoecological Methods.- Nature of the Paleoecological Record.- Palã+