Invasive grass density negatively impacts chaparral seedling establishment

Abstract

Type conversion from native shrubland to invasive annual grassland is on the rise due to global change factors such as prolonged drought and increasing fire frequency. Efforts to restore chaparral ecosystems are limited by current understanding of competitive interactions between shrub seedlings and invasive grasses as well as soil moisture requirements of chaparral seedlings. We set up a restoration experiment where we out‐planted Adenostoma fasciculatum seedlings, manipulated invasive grass density, monitored soil moisture at two depths, and tracked seedling survival and biomass. We found that higher invasive grass cover was associated with higher rates of seedling mortality but found no difference in biomass per surviving plant. Soil moisture was higher at 15 cm under the 100% weeded treatment than the 50% weeded and control treatments during January. Lower invasive cover resulted in higher richness of annual native plant species, as plots with 100% invasive removal had higher richness than 50% removal and unplanted control plots. Future restoration efforts in the chaparral will likely be more successful in increasing initial seedling establishment if invasive grass removal is included.