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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Invasive Species and Pollinator Health » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #167888
Title: ECOLOGICAL RESISTANCE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Author
item D Antonio, Carla
item THOMSEN, MEREDITH - UNIV OF CA, BERKELEY

Submitted to: Weed Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/22/2004
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Ecological resistance is a concept that asserts that an assemblage of organisms or a site in nature has some ability to repel invading organisms. It was first used in the ecological literature in the 1950s to refer to those biotic and abiotic properties of a site that influence the successful survival and reproduction of an invading population. Despite the great interest in managing against potentially harmful invading species, most managers have not incorporated the concept of resistance directly into their management schemes. Rather, management of invasive species has focused on 'control' using chemical, mechanical or biological agents. Here we suggest that management of the competitive background and manipulation of growth and stress conditions for desired and undesirable species be given equal weight in considerations of 'control.' While some communities may have very little 'resistance' to invasion, even a small amount of resistance can help to slow an invasion allowing managers more time to remove the incipient populations.

Technical Abstract: Ecological resistance refers to the biotic and abiotic factors in a recipient ecosystem that limit the population of an invading species. While there is interest in applying this concept to the management and restoration of habitats influenced by damaging, invasive species, practical difficulties restoring resistance have inhibited its broad-scale incorporation. Also, some ecologists have argued that resistance is unimportant in generating landscape pattern casting doubt on its potential usefulness in largescale management. Here we argue that despite temporal and spatial fluctuations in resistance being the norm, the concept provides a valuable foundation for a more sustainable approach to long-term weed management. This goal should be achievable through identification and manipulation of successional processes in natural communities.