Byun Chaeho, Singh Kripal, Hong Sun Hee
Department of Biological Sciences, Andong National University, Andong, 36729, Republic of Korea.
School of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, Hankyong National University, Anseong-si, 17579, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea.
J Environ Manage. 2025 Sep;391:126561. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126561. Epub 2025 Jul 15.
The global proliferation of invasive plant species accelerates biodiversity loss, degrading ecosystems, and incurring economic costs exceeding hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Here, we conducted a three-year field trial to evaluate the effectiveness of high-pressure water spraying a unique, selective mechanical control method compared with conventional practices like mowing, selective uprooting, and cutting. The high-pressure water control method significantly reduced the plant cover (95 %) and soil seedbank (78 %) of target invasive species i.e., Sicyos angulatus, outperforming mowing (41 % and 21 %), cutting (23 % and 7.5 %) and uprooting (24 % and 37 %) treatments. The highest (74.5 %) suppression of the secondary invader, i.e., Humulus scandens was also found in the high-pressure water control method. Early sowing of native seed mixtures with high functional diversity did not show significant effects on invasion suppression and diversity recovery, however values little higher in early sowing plots. Biodiversity levels in water spray-treated plots were comparable to those in reference ecosystems. Our findings indicate that high-pressure water spraying is a scalable control method with minimal impact on native vegetation, reducing disturbance-induced invasion and offering a practical solution for invasion management and biodiversity restoration.
入侵植物物种在全球范围内的扩散加速了生物多样性丧失，破坏生态系统，并导致每年超过数千亿美元的经济损失。在此，我们进行了一项为期三年的田间试验，以评估高压喷水这种独特的选择性机械控制方法与割草、选择性拔根和砍伐等传统方法相比的有效性。高压水控制方法显著降低了目标入侵物种（即棱角丝瓜）的植物覆盖度（95%）和土壤种子库（78%），优于割草（41%和21%）、砍伐（23%和7.5%）和拔根（24%和37%）处理。在高压水控制方法中还发现对次生入侵者（即葎草）的抑制率最高（74.5%）。早期播种具有高功能多样性的本地种子混合物对入侵抑制和多样性恢复未显示出显著影响，不过早期播种地块的值略高。喷水处理地块的生物多样性水平与参考生态系统相当。我们的研究结果表明，高压喷水是一种可扩展的控制方法，对本地植被影响最小，减少干扰引发的入侵，并为入侵管理和生物多样性恢复提供了切实可行的解决方案。
