Abstract
Treatment frequency is one of the key regulators determining the efficiency of and investment in controlling invasive plants. However, it is highly unlikely to find the optimal solution to the control of invasive plants through studying treatment frequency alone. In addition, the efficiency of controlling invasive plants is habitat-dependent. In this paper, clip** treatment was employed as the method to control invasive species Spartina alterniflora. We made an attempt to illustrate that clip** frequency can be reduced by considering the habitat properties and other relevant controlling regulators. Our full factorial test of combining clip** timing with considerations of clip** frequency and tidal regime showed that four-time clip** treatment started at florescence in high marsh or three-time clip** treatment started at florescence in low marsh was effective for controlling S. alterniflora. This implies that the control efficiency could be enhanced if treatment timing is optimized in relation to treatment frequency and habitat properties, which will lead to reduced management costs of controlling invasive species.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2006CB403305), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 30670330 and 30870409), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai (No. 07DZ12038-2) and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-06-0364) funded by the Ministry of Education of China.
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Tang, L., Gao, Y., Wang, C. et al. How tidal regime and treatment timing influence the clip** frequency for controlling invasive Spartina alterniflora: implications for reducing management costs. Biol Invasions 12, 593–601 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-009-9465-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-009-9465-9