Introduced grasses are a major threat to dryland ecosystems world-wide because of their ability to transform plant communities and change fire regimes. These structural and functional shifts are often assumed to impact wildlife but this has rarely been measured directly. Likewise, evaluation of weed removal programs rarely considers benefits to fauna, thereby limiting information that could inform management decisions. We used an experimental approach to test the impacts of removing invasive buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris), a globally significant invader of dryland systems, on reptiles, a prominent component of the Australian desert fauna. A combination of mechanical and herbicide treatment was applied to replicate plots in areas that had been invaded for at least two decades and changes to ground cover and plant and reptile assemblages were monitored over six years and compared to still-invaded control plots. Following treatment, native plants re-established without the need for reseeding or planting, especially during a period of high rainfall, when positive effects on reptiles also became apparent. The abundance and species richness of reptiles increased at all plots during the mesic period, but less so in control plots, and remained higher at treated plots for the duration of the study, although this was only significant at some times. Post-treatment 27 of 36 species were captured more frequently in treated plots and only four species, all with very low captures, were captured more often in invaded control plots. This consistent trend among species suggests broad factors such as reduced prey or habitat diversity account for negative impacts of buffel grass on reptiles. Our results suggest ongoing detrimental effects of buffel invasion on reptiles in invaded areas and, together with concurrent research at the same sites, provide experimental evidence that removing buffel grass from heavily invaded areas, even at small scales, benefits a variety of native flora and fauna. Until landscape-scale management options are available, small scale restoration of buffel-invaded areas offers multiple conservation benefits, including maintenance of native seed banks and adult plants, reduced fire impacts, and provision of patches of favourable habitat for fauna.

引入的草由于对植物群落的转化和改变火势的能力而成为对全世界旱地生态系统的主要威胁。通常认为这些结构和功能上的变化会影响野生动植物，但很少直接进行测量。同样，除草计划的评估很少考虑对动物的好处，因此限制了可以指导管理决策的信息。我们使用了一种实验方法来测试去除侵入性水牛草（Cenchrus ciliaris）的影响。），这是旱地系统的全球重大入侵者，是爬行动物，是澳大利亚沙漠动物的重要组成部分。机械和除草剂处理相结合，在已入侵至少二十年的地区复制样地，并在六年中监测了地被植物和植物及爬行动物组合的变化，并将其与仍在入侵的对照样地进行了比较。处理后，无需重新播种或种植即可重建原生植物，尤其是在高降雨期间，这时对爬行动物的积极影响也很明显。在研究期间，爬行动物的丰度和物种丰富度在所有地块都增加，但在对照地块中则没有，在处理地块中则保持较高，尽管这仅在某些时候是有意义的。处理后的36个物种中有27个在被处理的地块中被捕获的频率更高，而只有四个捕获率非常低的物种在被入侵的控制地块中被捕获的频率更高。物种之间这种一致的趋势表明，猎物减少或栖息地多样性等广泛因素造成了水牛草对爬行动物的负面影响。我们的研究结果表明，蚕uff入侵对入侵地区爬行动物的有害影响，再加上在同一地点进行的同时研究，提供了实验证据，表明即使在小规模采摘时，也可以从重度入侵地区清除蚕uff，从而有益于多种本土动植物。 。在提供景观尺度的管理方案之前，对遭受水牛侵袭的地区进行小规模恢复可带来多种保护效益，包括维护本地种子库和成年植物，