Quantifying the recent expansion of native invasive rush species in a UK upland environment,Annals of Applied Biology

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Quantifying the recent expansion of native invasive rush species in a UK upland environment
Annals of Applied Biology ( IF 2.2 ) Pub Date : 2020-06-08 , DOI: 10.1111/aab.12602
Mark A. Ashby ₁ , James Duncan Whyatt ₁ , Karen Rogers ₂ , Rob H. Marrs ₃ , Carly J. Stevens ₁

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Rushes, such as soft rush (Juncus effusus L.), hard rush (Juncus inflexus L.) and compact rush (Juncus conglomeratus L.) have become problem species within upland grasslands across the UK and the coastal grasslands of western Norway. Indeed, being largely unpalatable to livestock and having a vigorous reproductive ecology means that they can rapidly come to dominate swards. However, rush dominance results in a reduction in grassland biodiversity and farm productivity. Anecdotal evidence from the UK suggests that rush cover within marginal upland grasslands has increased considerably in recent decades. Yet, there is currently no published evidence to support this observation. Here, we use recent and historical Google Earth imagery to measure changes in rush frequency over a 13-year period within four survey years: 2005, 2009, 2015 and 2018. During each survey year, we quantified rush presence or absence using a series of quadrats located within 300 upland grassland plots in the West Pennine Moors, UK. Data were analysed in two stages, first, by calculating mean rush frequencies per sample year using all the available plot-year combinations (the full dataset), and second by examining 25 differences in rush frequency using only the plots for which rush frequency data were available in every sample year (the continuous dataset). The full dataset indicated that rush frequency has increased by 82% between 2005 and 2018. Similarly, the continuous dataset suggested that rush frequency has increased by 174% over the same period, with the increases in frequency being statistically significant (P<0.05) between 2005-2018 and 2009-2018. We discuss the potential drivers of rush expansion in the West Pennine Moors, the ecological and agronomic implications of grassland rush infestations, and priorities for future research.

中文翻译：

量化英国高地环境中本地入侵物种的近期扩张

灯心草，如软灯心草 (Juncus effusus L.)、硬灯心草 (Juncus inflexus L.) 和紧凑灯心草 (Juncus conglomeratus L.) 已成为英国高地草原和挪威西部沿海草原的问题物种。事实上，对牲畜来说基本上是不好吃的，并且拥有旺盛的生殖生态，这意味着它们可以迅速主宰草场。然而，抢占优势导致草地生物多样性和农业生产力下降。来自英国的轶事证据表明，近几十年来边缘高地草原内的草丛覆盖率显着增加。然而，目前没有已发表的证据支持这一观察结果。在这里，我们使用最近和历史的谷歌地球图像来衡量四个调查年度内 13 年期间高峰频率的变化：2005、2009、2015 和 2018。在每个调查年中，我们使用位于英国西奔宁荒原的 300 个高地草原地块内的一系列样方来量化是否存在高峰。数据分两个阶段进行分析，首先，使用所有可用的地块年组合（完整数据集）计算每个样本年的平均高峰频率，其次通过仅使用高峰频率数据的地块检查高峰频率的 25 个差异。每个样本年都可用（连续数据集）。完整数据集表明，2005 年至 2018 年间，高峰频率增加了 82%。同样，连续数据集表明，同期高峰频率增加了 174%，频率的增加具有统计学意义（P<0.05）。 2005-2018 和 2009-2018。

更新日期：2020-06-08

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