Does Removal of Invasive Garlic Mustard Affect Eastern Red-backed Salamanders?

摘要

One challenge facing land managers is the invasion of non-native plants (Westman 1990, D'Antonio and Meyerson 2002). Decisions on remediation and removal of non-native plants need to be placed into a cost-benefit context, taking into account the costs and impacts of removal since not all invasive plants have the same impact (e.g., Hiebert 1997). Removal of many invasive plants is very expensive and time-consuming (Blossey et al. 2001, Marais et al 2004), but can have positive out-comes on native species and ecosystems (e.g., Holsman et al. 2010). However, removal of invasive species can have unintended, or even problematic, outcomes (Rinella et al. 2009, Zipkin et al. 2009). Therefore, we need a better understanding of the potential benefits of invasive plant removal on the native flora and fauna.