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- Title
Growth and competition among understory plants varies with reclamation soil and fertilization.
- Authors
Buss, Jennifer; Stratechuk, Kyle; Pinno, Bradley D.
- Abstract
Introduction: Following oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada, the main land management goal is to establish a functioning boreal forest ecosystem, including the understory plant community. One of the challenges with restoring the understory is the presence of non-native species that compete with desirable native species for resources. In a greenhouse experiment, we studied the growth of two native understory species (<italic>Galium boreale</italic> and <italic>Vicia americana</italic>) and a non-native invasive species (<italic>Matricaria perforata</italic>) grown with either intra- or interspecific neighbors across three common land reclamation soils and a nitrogen fertilizer treatment.Results: When grown by itself, <italic>V. americana</italic> aboveground biomass did not differ among soil or fertilizer treatments, likely due to its ability to fix nitrogen. Growth of <italic>M. perforata</italic> was directly related to soil nitrogen, and it had the greatest increase in biomass with fertilization. Growth and biomass of <italic>G. boreale</italic> was less than the other species, and it had the highest mortality in the nitrogen-poor soil. When grown together, the proportional biomass of <italic>M. perforata</italic> and <italic>V. americana</italic> varied with soil treatment such that <italic>M. perforata</italic> was dominant in the high-nitrogen forest floor-mineral mix treatment while <italic>V. americana</italic> was dominant in the low-nitrogen peat-mineral mix.Conclusions: Operationally, care should be taken when applying fertilizer to reclamation areas, as it may have an unwanted positive effect on growth for undesirable non-native plants at the expense of native species. In terms of seed mixtures, <italic>V. americana</italic> may be a good option for low inorganic nitrogen resource soils and <italic>G. boreale</italic> for high nitrogen resource soils.
- Subjects
PLANT competition; PLANT growth; GALIUM (Plant genus); PLANT communities; SOIL fertility management; INVASIVE plants
- Publication
Ecological Processes, 2018, Vol 7, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2192-1709
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/s13717-018-0123-y