LCB Research: China Invasive Plants, 2010-2015

In this work, we investigated (as part of a larger team) the various strategies that plants use to survive and thrive in the extremely harsh environments of cold deserts using Central Asia and the Great Basin as study systems. Related work examined how climatic similarities could be used to predict potential ranges of species as well as reasons (e.g human practices) a climate envelope may be a poor predictor. A large part of this work involves invasive plants, which may be inconspicuous in their native range and appear very “aggressive” and even dominant in some ranges they have colonized.   

People: Albright, Sadoti, Hardage

Key collaborators: Bob Nowak, Beth Leger, Wendy Trowbridge (UNR/Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences), Barry Perryman (UNR/Agriculture, Nutrition, and Veterinary Sciences), Zach Aanderud (Brigham Young U.), Chinese Academy of Sciences/Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Qinfeng Guo (US Forest Service)

Funding: NSF-EAGER (to Bob Nowak), USGS

People: Albright, Mundy
 

Relevant Publications:

• Olonova, MV, NS Mezina, TS Vysokikh, VD Shiposha, TP Albright, 2016, Will Poa compressa (Poaceae) Become Invasive in Siberia?, Phyton, 56(2):181-192 10.12905/0380.phyton56(2)2016-0181

• Trowbridge, W, TP Albright, S Ferguson, J Li, B Perryman, RS Nowak, 2013, Explaining patterns of species dominance in the shrub steppe systems of the Junggar Basin (China) and Great Basin (USA), Journal of Arid Lands, 5(4)415-427, DOI: 10.1007/s40333-013-0174-y.

• Anderson, DP, MG Turner, SM Pearson, TP Albright, RK Peet, A Wieben, 2013, Predicting Microstegium vimineum invasion in natural plant communities of the southern Blue Ridge Mountains, USA, Biological Invasions, 15(6)1217-1230, DOI 10.1007/s10530-012-0361-3.

• Li, Z, Q Dong, TP Albright, & QF Guo, 2011, Natural and human dimensions of a quasi-wild species: The case of kudzu, Biological Invasions, 13(10)2167-2179, DOI 10.1007/s10530-011-0042-7.

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