Invasion by exotic grasses is a severe threat to neotropical grasslands conservation and a major challenge for their restoration. To restore fire‐prone cerrado grasslands in southeastern Brazil, which have been massively invaded by the African grass Urochloa decumbens, we tested prescribed fire, herbicides, and hoeing, by themselves or in different combinations. Techniques were compared using ecological indicators (decreasing invasive and increasing native vegetation cover and richness) and cost‐effectiveness. All treatments, except fire alone, were similarly effective in controlling the invasive grass, which was reduced to less than 5% cover after 2 years. However, only hoeing was effective in recovering both ground cover and richness of the native vegetation, which was the restoration goal. Despite not changing ground cover by native vegetation or alien grasses, fire was successful as a complementary technique, by depleting the seed bank of the invasive grass by 40%. Hoeing preceded by fire and followed by a grass‐selective herbicide was the most cost‐effective, requiring US$40 per hectare to increase native ground cover by one percentage point compared to US$93 per hectare if only hoeing. Despite the low cost and efficacy of glyphosate application for controlling the invasive grass, it must be followed by reintroducing the native ground cover through active restoration. If the restoration target is to recover both structure and richness of the native vegetation without planting, hoeing is the best solution to control alien grasses.

中文翻译：

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使用不同技术恢复塞拉多草原的入侵物种控制的有效性和成本

外来草种的入侵是对新热带草原保护的严重威胁，也是对其恢复的重大挑战。恢复巴西东南部易发火的塞拉多草原，该草原已被非洲草皮Urochloa decumbens大规模入侵，我们单独或以不同组合测试了处方中的火，除草剂和草。使用生态指标（减少侵入性和增加原生植被的覆盖度和丰富度）和成本效益对技术进行了比较。除单独使用火种外，所有处理方法均有效地控制了侵入性草，两年后其覆盖率降低至不足5％。但是，only只是有效地恢复了地面植被和天然植被的丰富性，这是恢复的目标。尽管没有改变原生植被或外来草的地被，火仍是一项成功的补充技术，将入侵草的种子库减少了40％。火后加火，再选草除草剂是最具成本效益的，每公顷需要40美元才能使当地地面覆盖率提高一个百分点，而耕则需要每公顷93美元。尽管草甘膦用于控制侵入性草的成本低且功效高，但必须通过主动恢复将其重新引入天然地被植物。如果恢复的目标是在不种植的情况下恢复原生植被的结构和丰富性，则是控制外来草的最佳解决方案。