Get reliable science

Phyla canescens (lippia) is an invasive weed from South America that is now widespread throughout floodplains and wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia. Lippia has invaded internationally significant wetlands often forming a dense ground-layer that excludes co-occurring native species and threatens the integrity of these wetlands. Lippia is unpalatable to grazing stock and in areas where invasion has occurred the loss of productive land causes managers to destock (55 - 100%). Traditional weed control measures including herbicides and mechanical means, are often impractical and unsuitable, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas and alternative measures need to be devised. The grazing regime is generally continuous/set-stocked in these wetlands. We are using strategic grazing to manipulate plant species composition in order to select for desirable perennial species.  In particular, we addressed whether providing periods of rest from grazing permits native species to establish and out compete lippia in different hydrological zones in several wetland areas. ...