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Fire does not facilitate invasion by alien annual grasses in an infertile Australian agricultural landscape

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Abstract

Plant invasions are a significant threat to fragmented native plant communities in many agricultural regions. Fire potentially facilitates invasions, but in landscapes historically subject to recurrent fires, exclusion of fire is also likely to result in loss of biodiversity. We investigated the relationship between fire, fragmentation and alien plant invasion in mallee communities of the Western Australian wheatbelt. We hypothesized that invasion is limited by lack of propagules and the low soil nutrient levels of this old, infertile landscape, but that fire and/or fragmentation disrupt these limits. We tested the effects of three factors on establishment and abundance of alien annuals: ± fire, ± post-fire seeding with the locally invasive Avena barbata (propagule availability) and three landscape contexts. The three landscape contexts, exploring site limitations, were reserve interiors, perimeter edges adjacent to agricultural land and internal reserve roadside edges. Our first hypothesis was supported: Avena establishment was consistently greater in seeded plots, but away from perimeter edges, growth was poor. Our second hypothesis was supported only for perimeter edges: neither fire nor fragmentation by interior roads enhanced invasive plant establishment or biomass. At perimeter edges, invasive plant biomass was significantly greater. This was associated with higher propagule availability and elevated soil nutrient levels but was not enhanced by fire. We conclude that fire is unlikely to promote invasion by alien annuals in low-nutrient ecosystems such as mallee, hence is a viable disturbance strategy for biodiversity conservation away from nutrient-enriched edges.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mitchell Davies and Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) fire crews for organizing and conducting the prescribed burns. Brett Beecham, Mitchell Davies, Steve Gorton, Graeme Keals and Peter Lacey (DEC) provided helpful comments on the experimental proposal, Steven Zabar (CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences—CES) and Tanya Llorens (DEC) provided field and lab assistance respectively, and A/Professor John Henstridge of Data Analysis Australia and Dr Jane Speijers of the Biometrics Unit, Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Food, provided advice and assistance with data analysis. This research was conducted under DEC Licenses SW011589 and CE001774. Roger Lawes, Yvonne Buckley (CES) and an anonymous referee provided helpful comments on drafts of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science Division, Department of Environment and Conservation and CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Private Mail Bag 5, PO Wembley, WA, 6913, Australia

    Carl R. Gosper

  2. Science Division, Department of Environment and Conservation, Locked Bag 104, Bentley Delivery Centre, WA, 6983, Australia

    Colin J. Yates & Matthew R. Williams

  3. CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Private Mail Bag 5, PO Wembley, WA, 6913, Australia

    Suzanne M. Prober

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  1. Carl R. Gosper
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Correspondence to Carl R. Gosper.

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Gosper, C.R., Yates, C.J., Prober, S.M. et al. Fire does not facilitate invasion by alien annual grasses in an infertile Australian agricultural landscape. Biol Invasions 13, 533–544 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-010-9847-z

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