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SFS Annual Meeting

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COMPARING THE EFFECTS OF ROADS AND STREAMS ON INVASIVE PLANT ABUNDANCE IN APPALACHIAN PROTECTED AREAS

The economic, environmental, and societal impacts of invasive species are well documented, and there is overwhelming evidence that prevention of new invasions is more effective than treatment. With limited funds available to land management agencies, it is becoming increasingly important for land managers to effectively allocate prevention funding by quickly identifying locations most likely to experience biological invasions and their most severe impacts. We compare the effects of roads and streams, two significant pathways for delivery of invasive plant propagules, on the abundance of non-native invasive plants in 27 protected areas in Appalachia from Pennsylvania to Alabama. In addition to road and stream variables, we include other anthropogenic (e.g., distance to nearest urban area) and natural (e.g., slope, elevation, and canopy cover) covariates in our model. Initial results indicate that road variables are more strongly correlated than stream variables with parcel invadedness. The ability to predict invasion patterns will allow land managers to better prioritize prevention, outreach, and early detection efforts for invasive plants when acquiring and managing protected areas.

Eric Larson (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Illinois, erlarson@illinois.edu;


Gwen Iacona (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), The University of Queensland, g.iacona@uq.edu.au;


Paul Armsworth (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Tennessee, p.armsworth@utk.edu;


Melissa Daniels (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, md13@illinois.edu;