In New England, it is important to understand invasion dynamics and how to mitigate the effects of invasion as non-native plants make up at least 30% of all vascular plants and 3-5% are considered invasive, which means they can have large measurable impacts to the ecosystem or to native species.
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Riparian areas are habitats along any body of water, but typically a river or a stream. The native vegetation found here has a large role in ensuring the many benefits that humans receive from these areas, such as water filtration, nutrient removal, bank stabilization, erosion control, flood protection, carbon sequestration, and provisioning of fish and wildlife habitat. These benefits are known as ecosystem services and depend on properly functioning ecosystems, which can be negatively impacted by changes to plant communities.
Riparian forest vegetation is also very important to streams, rivers, and fish populations, as they shade and maintain cool water temperatures, increase habitat complexity and increase food web dynamics. These habitats are commonly invaded by invasive plants as they are among the most human disturbed ecosystems in the world, and are often modified for transportation, flow regulation, and drainage purposes which often introduce invasive species. Invasive plants often outcompete native species, which can cause changes to native species composition and lead to their local extinction, ecosystem degradation and possible impairment to ecosystem service benefits.
My research will analyze invasive plant invasion patterns in riparian forests of New England and
aims to quantify the impacts caused from terrestrial invasive plants on riparian forest structure, stream physical habitat, soil and bank behavior, and the provisioning of ecosystem services.
In addition, my research will assess the effects of restoring native plant communities in riparian forests after a major disturbance and analyze their ability to resist invasive plants.
Ultimately, my research will assist conservation efforts to further understand the distribution of invasive plants in riparian forests and to help identify which areas may be at risk of invasion, how to minimize this risk, and how to mitigate the effects on ecosystem services.
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Check out my Thesis and Publication at the links below for results!
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