Invasion pattern of pinus pinaster from plantation into bushland and wetlands in the gnangara mound western australia

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY CHRISTINE ANNE D.S BELEN INVASION PATTERN OF PINUS PINASTER FROM PLANTATION INTO BUSHLAND AND WETLANDS IN THE GNANGARA MOUND, WESTERN AUSTRALIA BACHELOR THESIS Study Mode : Full- time Major Faculty : Bachelor in Environmental Science and Management : International Programs Office Batch : K45- Advanced Education Program Thai Nguyen, 20/11/2017 Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry Degree Program Bachelor in Environmental Science and Management Student Name Christine Anne Delos Santos Belen Student ID DTN1454290060 Thesis Title Invasion pattern of Pinus pinaster from plantation into bushland and wetlands in the Gnangara Mound, Western Australia Supervisor Dr Do Xuan Luan & Dr Eddie Van Etten Abstract: The increase of planted forest area worldwide has lead to the extensive planting of exotic species; however, these species are often invasive and can spread to neighboring natural ecosystems One of the most planted exotic species globally is Pinus (pine trees), particularly Pinus pinaster and understanding its invasion pattern can raise awareness and can serve as a basis to provide appropriate suggestions to prevent its spread In this study, the researcher aimed to identify the invasion pattern of P pinaster into adjacent bushland and wetlands in Gnangara Mound, Western Australia and to determine the factors that influence the spread like fire history The study was done by counting the P pinaster wildlings on a measured 1-hectare quadrat on every selected site of each natural ecosystem around the plantations: Banksia woodland, Eucalyptus-Banksia woodland and Melaleuca woodland (wetlands) The researcher observed that Melaleuca woodland contained the most number of pine wildlings (465 pines) and showed a distinct invasion pattern, which are the common two-phase pattern and the Hubbell model It portrays that the pine wildlings found are greater in the distance close to the plantation and decreased with distance from the edge Meanwhile, both Banksia and Eucalyptus-Banksia woodlands showed a few number of wildlings (7 and 12 pines, respectively) and no definite pattern of invasion The vulnerability of wetlands to pine invasion can be associated with its land characteristic and resource availability while the resistances of the other ecosystems are influenced by its composition, dense vegetation (no disturbance) and lack of nutrient availability for wildlings Moreover, since P pinaster species are obligate seeders and release high number of seeds after fire, burnt Melaleuca woodland sites showed higher number of wildlings (331 pines) than the unburnt sites (134 pines) Keywords: Pinus pinaster, pine plantations, invasion pattern, Number of page 48 Date of Submission November 20, 2017 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The researcher wishes to extend her grateful appreciation to the following people for their valuable contribution in order to make this research possible First and above all, thanks be to God for giving the researcher life, strength, love and courage throughout this research Thanks be to God for all His unspeakable gifts Second, to her family that never fails to support, guide and love her to fulfill her dreams and to provide her all the great things possible To the Advanced Education Program headed by Dr Duong Van Thao and to the TUAF officials for their assistance to their students as well as to Edith Cowan University officials that made this exchange research program possible To the researcher’s thesis adviser in Australia, Dr Eddie Van Etten, for his warm welcome, never-ending support and guidance throughout the research process To the researcher’s thesis adviser in Vietnam, Dr Do Xuan Luan for his advices and support To all the amazing people that the researcher met in Australia that made her stay there easier and beyond great To her beloved friend, Mishel Ranada, who is with her in Australia and helped her all the way To all her classmates in K45 and to all her Filipino friends, especially her roommates, for the moral support and encouragements they gave Lastly, the researcher offers her regards to all of those who supported her in any respect during the completion of this research May God bless us all! iii TABLE OF CONTENT LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PART I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Rationale 1.2 Research’s Objectives 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Limitations PART II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Pinus 2.1.1 Pinus as invasive species 2.2 Pine invasion in the southern hemisphere 10 2.2.1 Pine invasion in Australia 12 2.3 Factors of Invasion 13 2.3.1 Invasion pattern 17 2.3.2 Impacts of Invasion 18 2.4 Pinus pinaster 18 2.4.1 Pinus pinaster plantation in Perth, Western Australia 19 2.4.3 Regeneration of Pinus pinaster after fire 20 2.4.4 Pinus pinaster invasion 21 PART III: METHODS 23 3.1 Materials 23 3.2 Geographical Information System (GIS) 23 3.3 Site selection 24 3.4 Field sampling and Data collection 25 3.6 Statistical analysis 26 PART IV: RESULTS 27 4.1 P pinaster plantation edges 27 4.2 Number of pine wildlings 28 4.1 Fire history in relation with wilding regeneration 30 4.2 Different types of natural vegetation in relation with wildling regeneration 31 PART V: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 32 5.1 Discussion 32 5.1.1 Invasion pattern 32 iv 5.1.2 Regeneration based on natural habitat type 34 5.1.3 Relation of fire history 36 5.1.4 Management of pine wildlings 36 5.2 Conclusion 37 REFERENCES 39 APPENDICES v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Total P pinaster wildlings density (means/ha) distribution in Melaleuca woodland (wetlands) in relation to distance from the ecosystem boundary (meters) 29 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: A table summary of the different types of edges found adjacent to Pinus pinaster plantations .27 Table 2: A summary of the percentage cover of each of the natural ecosystems 27 Table 3: A summary of the number of wildlings surveyed from all of the eighteen sites .28 Table 4: ANOVA results with: “Sample” being the three natural ecosystems and “columns” as the fire history 30 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Meaning DPIE Department of Primary Industries and Energy ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute FPC Forest Product Commission GIS Geographic Information System PART I INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the rationale of the study, the objectives, research questions and limitations of the study 1.1 Research Rationale The global demand in forest products, such as timber, and the need to fulfill various environmental concerns has led to the increase of planted forest area worldwide (Dodet & Collet, 2012) In order to sustain such needs, many countries are planting exotic tree species for they are fast growing, easy to establish and have low shade tolerance Unfortunately, many of these exotic species used for forest plantations are considered invasive and can spread into neighboring natural ecosystems (Richardson, 1998) Most of the time, invasive species are receiving attention only if the situation becomes serious, that is, once they have escalated over large areas and dominated nearby ecosystems Such levels of invasion can result in major alterations of ecosystem structure and function, and is now one of the major threats to the Earth’s biodiversity (Williams & Wardle, 2007) Thus, understanding the invasion pattern of these exotic species can help in preventing and managing their establishment into natural ecosystems One of the most common planted exotic trees globally are species of Pinus, commonly known as “pines” Pine species have been planted to areas outside their natural ranges because of its economic importance, most especially in the Southern Hemisphere Since pines can provide fast-growing, high-quality timber products, plantations of it have resulted in invasion problems in many areas of the world (Richardson, 1998) The inordinate spreading of Pinus from its plantation into natural ecosystems has been a constant problem in countries like New Zealand (Hunter & Douglas, 1984; Ledgard, 1988), South Africa (Richardson & Brown, 1986), Chile (Bustamante & Simonetti, 2005) and Australia (Richardson et al., 1994) Pine invasions are creating a serious dilemma in New Zealand for they displace the native biodiversity and alter both aesthetic and environmental values, but also provide an important source of revenue via exports and local consumption Moreover, South Africa are facing problems in managing grazing lands, protected areas and water sheds due to the domination of Pinus species in different vegetation (Richardson et al., 1997) The biological invasions of exotic species like pines within natural ecosystems are now the second greatest danger that is disrupting the world’s biodiversity (Walker & Steffen, 1997) Among the cultivators of pine plantations worldwide, Australia is one of the countries with the largest area of such plantations, with more than one million hectares nationwide (Australian plantation statistics, 2016) According to Western Australia’s Forest Products Commission, pine plantations were established in order to sustain the State’s needs for timber products contributing almost $1.06 billion per year to the economy Most area of the pines plantations are composed of species called Pinus radiata and Pinus pinaster (which is commonly known as maritime pine) though P pinaster is more common around Perth and in the northern parts of the Southwest Region As stated by Western Australia’s FPC report, P pinaster was originally from western Mediterranean Basin and introduced in Western Australia in 1896 P pinaster species from Portugal, specifically from Leiria province, showed the best form and growth rate for the sandy soils during the plantation trials in 1926 Currently, P pinaster plantations are situated in Western Australia regions of Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain (Keighery et al., 2013) In particular, the Gnangara Mound is considered as one of the biggest P pinaster plantations in Western Australia It is situated in the northern part of Perth metropolitan area on the Swan Coastal Plain and is an unconfined groundwater system with an extensive area of 2200 km2 (Stock et al., 2013) It is composed of different dune systems, which also act as superficial aquifer that provides fresh drinking water throughout Perth According to Western Australia’s Gnangara Sustainability Strategy Report, the Gnangara mound mainly includes three maritime pine plantation systems (Gnangara, Pinjar and Yanchep) which, at 2009, covered an area of 22000 hectares (ha) though pine clearing is evident Aside from its timber importance, pines are being harvested to increase the groundwater recharge in Gnangara Mound, especially in the southern parts, as groundwater levels have been declining However, some of the pines are being reserved to serve as food and habitats for Carnaby cockatoo while other pines are being replanted after the harvest where groundwater is not being used like in the northern part of Yanchep Remnant native vegetation can also be found within (through wetlands) and adjacent to the pine plantations In general, the Gnangara Mound is composed of three different types of native vegetation surrounding the pine plantations Banksia woodland (normally a mix of Banksia menziesii and B attenuata) can be found in Bassendean dunes (up to million years old), Eucalyptus-Banksia woodland which is situated in Spearwood dunes (~0.8 million years old) and Melaleuca vegetation that are found in low lying areas where groundwater reaches near or above the surface in winter (commonly referred as wetlands) within the pine plantations (Stock et al., 2013) In detail, Spearwood dune can be divided into two sub-systems: the Karrakatta complex which has limestone near surface and tuart (E gomphocephala) woodland, and Cottlesloe complex which has Jarrah (E marginata) – Marri (Corymbia calophylla) – Banksia woodland Because P pinaster has the ability to regenerate outside its plantations, it can potentially spread into the mentioned native vegetation above According to Alia et al (1999), P pinaster fruit production begins at an early age between 10-15 years old with a regular recurrence of abundant crops every or years, which is why it possesses high reproductive rates and distribution However, aside from the fact that it has fast growing characteristics and can reproduce quickly, the major disadvantage of P pinaster is its susceptibility to fire P pinaster is considered as one of the coniferous forest types, which frequently suffer the effects of fire due to its highly flammable resinous needles and woods In Spain, the regeneration of P pinaster species after wildfires has been widely studied by various authors (Thanos & Marcou, 1991; Trabaud & Campant, 1991; Perez & Moreno, 1998) According to these studies, rapid natural regeneration of maritime pine is highly possible because of fires P pinaster are obligate seeders which means that it responds to fire through rapid seed dispersal and that the seedlings reappearing after the fire originates from the soil seed bank through either by dispersion from neighboring areas or from the seeds held within the cones in the canopy Due to frequent fires within maritime pine communities, it has also acquired series of adaptive characteristics such as thicker bark and a high yield of serotinous cones Because of Richardson, D.M., Macdonald, I.A.W., Holmes, P.M and Cowling, R.M (1992) Plant and animal invasions In: Cowling, R.M (Ed.), The Ecology of Fynbos: Nutrients, Fire and Diversity Oxford University, Cape Town, pp.271-308 Richardson, D.M., Macdonald, I.A.W., Hoffmann, J.H and Henderson, L (1997) Alien plant invasions In: Cowling R.M., Richardson, D.M and Pierce, S.M (Eds.), Vegetation of Southern Africa Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Rodrigo, A., Retana, J and Picó, X (2004) Direct regeneration is not the only response of Mediterranean forests to large fires Ecology 85(3), pp.716-729 Rouget, M and Richardson D.D (2003) Inferring process from pattern in plant invasions: a semimechanistic model incorporating propagule pressure and environmental factors The American Naturalist, 162(6), pp.713-724 Springett, J.A (1976) The effect of planting Pinus pinaster Ait on populations of soil microarthropods and on litter decomposition at Gnangara, Western Australia Austral Ecology, 1(2), pp.83-87 Stock, W.D., Finn H., Parker J., and Dods, K (2013) Pine as fast food: foraging ecology of an endangered cockatoo in a forestry landscape PLoS ONE, 8(4), p.e61145 Swarbrick, J.T and Skarrat, D.B (1994) The Bushweed Database of Environmental Weeds in Australia Gatton, Queensland: University of Queensland Gatton College Thanos, G.A and Marcou, S (1991) Post-fire regeneration in Pinus brutia forest ecosystems of Samos Island (Greece): years after Acta Oecologica, 12, pp.633– 642 46 Thompson, W.L (1993) The current status of weeds in selected national parks of southeast Queensland In: Proceedings of the 10th Australian Weeds Conference and the 14th Asian Pacific Weed Science Society Conference, pp 162-166 Weed Society of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Torres, O., Calvo, L and Valbuena, L (2006) Influence of high temperatures on seed germination of a special Pinus pinaster stand adapted to frequent fires Plant Ecology, 186(1), pp.129-136 Torres, O (2002) Regeneración y banco de semillas de Pinus pinaster después de un gran incendio en la Sierra del Teleno (León) Memoria de Licenciatura, Universidad de León, León Trabaud L and Campant C (1991) Difficulté de recolonisation naturelle du Pin de Salzmann Pinus nigra ssp salzmannii (Dunal) Franco aprés incendie Biological Conservation, 58, pp 329–343 Trabaud, L (1995) Modalités de germination des cistes et des pins méditerranéens et colonisation des sites perturbés (Types of germination in Mediterranean’s Cistus and Pinus and perturbed zones colonization) Revue d Ecologie (Terre Vie) 50, pp.3-14 Valentine, L.E and Stock, W.D (2008) Food resources of Carnaby’s black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) in the Gnangara sustainability strategy study area Unpublished report to the Forest Products Commission and the Gnangara Sustainability Strategy Taskforce Versfeld, D.B and Van Wilgen, B.W (1986) Impact of woody aliens on ecosystem properties In: Macdonald, I.A.W., Kruger, F.J and Ferrar, A.A (Eds.), Ecology and 47 Management of Biological Invasions in Southern Africa Oxford University Press, Cape Town, pp 239–46 Virtue, J.G and Melland R.L (2003) The Environmental Weed Risk of Revegetation and Forestry Plants South Australia Report, 2003/02 Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation, Adelaide Walker B and Steffen W (1997) An overview of the implications of global change for natural and managed terrestrial ecosystems Conservation Ecology, 1(2) Watt, V.J (1986) Pine invasion of Maungakakaramea (Rainbow Mountain) MSc thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Williams, M.C and Wardle, G.M (2007) Pinus radiata invasion in Australia: Identifying key knowledge gaps and research directions Austral Ecology, 32(7), pp.721-739 Wills, B.J and Begg, J.S.C (1986) The Cockayne plots of Central Otago- A 1985 evaluation New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 9, pp.41-55 Zedler, J and Kercher, S (2004) Causes and Consequences of Invasive Plants in Wetlands: Opportunities, Opportunists, and Outcomes Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 23(5), pp.431-452 48 APPENDICES Appendix1: Materials a Rangefinder b Measuring tape c Marking tape d Insect repellent e Printed maps and pictures of selected maps Appendix2 Pine plantation edges and wetlands map in Gnangara Mound Appendix3: A part of the attribute table of the added GIS layer a Edges b Wetlands Appendix4: The six different categories the data were divided into Appendix5: Randomized sampling technique (plot) Appendix6: Documentations of the pine sites and natural ecosystem surveyed a Site (Banksia woodland, edge no 158: Burnt) b Site (Banksia woodland, edge no 129: Burnt) c Site (Melaleuca woodland, wetland no 37: Unburnt) d Site (Banksia woodland, edge no 28: Unburnt) e Site (Melaleuca woodland, wetland no 11: Burnt) f Site (Banksia woodland, edge no 66: Burnt) g Site (Eucalyptus-Banksia woodland, edge no 298: Burnt) h Site (Melaleuca woodland, wetland no 252: Burnt) i Site (Eucalyptus-Banksia woodland, edge no 229: Unburnt) j Site 10 (Eucalyptus-Banksia woodland, edge no 275: Burnt) k Site 11 (Eucalyptus-Banksia woodland, edge no 283: Unburnt) l Site 12 (Eucalyptus-Banksia woodland, edge no 206: Burnt) m Site 13 (Eucalyptus-Banksia woodland, edge no 291: Unburnt) n Site 14 (Melaleuca woodland, wetland no 13: Unburnt) o Site 15 (Banksia woodland, edge no 37: Unburnt) p Site 16 (Melaleuca woodland, wetland no 71: Unburnt) q Site 17 (Melaleuca woodland, wetland no 55: Burnt) r Site 18 (Banksia woodland, edge no 26: Unburnt) Appendix7: Documentation during data analyzation ... patterns of Pinus pinaster into bushland surrounding the plantations and habitats within the plantations (wetlands) a Is there a certain invasion pattern of P pinaster into bushland surrounding... invasion patterns of Pinus pinaster into bushland surrounding the plantations as well as ecosystems within the plantations (wetlands) Moreover, to identify the factors influencing the invasion of pines... study, the researcher aimed to identify the invasion pattern of P pinaster into adjacent bushland and wetlands in Gnangara Mound, Western Australia and to determine the factors that influence the