Appalachian mountains
Explaining and predicting the distribution and spread of invasive plants in the Southern Appalachian region
Contacts
Tim Kuhman, Monica Turner, Scott Pearson
Keywords
invasive plants, Southern Appalachians, land use history, Coweeta LTER, disturbance
Project Summary
The Southern Appalachians represent one of the most biodiverse temperate regions in the world. For more than a century the region has undergone extensive landscape change, beginning with widespread clearing of forests for timber harvest, pasture lands and agriculture. Poor suitability for agriculture lead to abandonment of cutover lands, which resulted in forest regeneration in many areas. Current land-use trends are dominated by rural residential development largely driven by aesthetics, climate and access to recreation. Superimposed on human land-use practices are natural disturbance events caused by hurricanes and fire. With human commerce and settlement have come invasive plants, which can impact native ecological communities and be a costly nuisance to human activities in the region. Like the Southern Appalachian landscape itself, the distribution of invasive plants is highly heterogeneous. Our research seeks to understand the biotic and abiotic factors that influence the distribution and spread of invasive plants across the region.
Integrating empirical data, GIS analysis, and spatial modeling, we ask the following questions:
- What role does historic land use play in determining the invasibility of a forest ecosystem?
- How will present and future land use in the southern Appalachians influence the spread of invasive plant species?
- What factors explain the distribution of selected invasive plants at fine to moderate scales?
- What is the potential regional distribution of selected invasive plants?
Read more about related research conducted in the Turner lab....
Key Findings
First field season took place in Summer 2006. Data analyses are underway.
Selected Publications
In progress