Removal or utilization? Testing alternative approaches to the management of an invasive woody legume in an Indian arid grassland

Ankila Hiremath

Woody plant encroachment is a pervasive global driver impacting grassland structure and functioning, and we know very little about efficacies of management techniques for restoring woody plant-encroached tropical grasslands. In the Banni grasslands of India,which are extensively encroached by an invasive woody legume, Prosopis juliflora, we test the efficacies of two Prosopis management methods—mechanical removal and lopping—to restore native grasslands. Across eight sites in the Banni, using a randomized block design, we monitored herbaceous plant recovery in the two Prosopis management treatments, and an unmanipulated control for 4 years. We also sampled four reference grasslands.

Read the full article/publication on: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/rec.13477