Meeting Abstract
In urban areas, nonnative plant species often dominate forest fragments and reduce the biodiversity of these areas by altering species interactions and abiotic conditions. The removal of nonnative plants can benefit the community, but different removal methods, as well as legacy effects, can influence plant community restoration. Prescription grazing practices have been used to control nonnative plant species, but the impacts of grazing on plant communities have not been well characterized. In this study, we applied a grazing treatment in an urban forest fragment heavily invaded with English ivy (Hedera helix). Twenty-four goats (Capra aegagrus hircus L.) grazed in two fenced areas for eight days each. These grazed sites, as well as two control sites, were surveyed via permanent transects for changes in ivy cover, species richness, and abundance of native and nonnative plants before grazing, 2.5 weeks after grazing, and 9.5 weeks after grazing. Grazing reduced ivy cover in the short term, but this effect is not predicted to last in the long term; one grazed site was already indistinguishable from the control sites 9.5 weeks post-grazing. There was no observed difference in species richness or abundance by treatment between grazed and control sites. Our results indicate that grazing by goats is effective for reducing ivy cover, but full restoration of this forest will require the use of other methods to combat invasive plant species and increase the abundance of native species.
