PLANT AND ANIMAL SCIENCES
BY PETER D. MOORE
Department of Biology
King’s College
London, U.K.
" A single, invasive plant species can change the structure and composition of an entire ecosystem, as is the case in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where the introduced tree Myrica faya is assuming dominance on the fresh volcanic soils.It grows faster than native trees, produces a seed rain of up to 60 seeds per square meter per year, and fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere at a rate 100 times faster than any other local source, thus posing a competitive threat to native tree species.
P.M. Vitousek, L.R. Walker, “Biological invasion by Myrica faya in Hawaii: plant demography, nitrogen fixation, ecosystem effects,” Ecological Monographs, 59, 247-65, September 1989. (Stanford University, Calif.)
" It is difficult to observe the grazing that takes place below ground, but such observations can be influential in determining plant distribution patterns....
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