Abstract

CUEVAS, Yannina Andrea  and  ZALBA, Sergio Martín. Effect of pines removal and soil litter treatments in the restoration of natural grasslands invaded by Pinus halepensis. Bol. Soc. Argent. Bot. [online]. 2013, vol.48, n.2. ISSN 1851-2372.

Effect of pines removal and soil litter treatments in the restoration of natural grasslands invaded by Pinus halepensis. Ernesto Tornquist Provincial Park (Sierra de la Ventana, Buenos Aires, Argentina) protects a remnant of pampean grasslands and is seriously threatened by the spread of alien woody plants, among them by Pinus halepensis. The effect that this species has on the structure and functioning of the ecosystem lead to the implementation of control actions aimed to reduce invasion. This work presents the results of monitoring the recovery of native grasslands after two control strategies: complete and partial removal of invasive trees, with and without complementary restoration actions (removal of needles, soil disturbance, addition of top-soil from non-invaded grasslands). Changes in vegetation following management actions were analyzed. Two years after removing the pines cleared areas showed increases in vegetation cover and species richness, with no detectable differences associated to complementary restoration actions. Percentage cover of alien plants showed a peak after felling the trees but this was later reverted by an increase in the abundance of native plants. These results highlight the capacity of spontaneous recovery of grasslands after controlling pines and the importance of early interventions in order to prevent changes that could be hard to revert.

Keywords : Sierra de la Ventana; Mountain grasslands; Invasive alien species; Control.

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