Around the world, flammable invasive grasses are increasing the risks of damaging wildfires.
Such adaptability has helped many grasses naturally expand their ranges. But in recent times, humans have accelerated that process by scattering grass seeds far from their native habitats, sometimes by accident and sometimes intentionally, to feed livestock, control erosion, and decorate gardens.
In 2008, several Australian states reversed course, restricting the use of gamba grass. But in many places it was too late. By then the grass covered more than 15,000 square kilometers. Researchers fear it could ultimately spread through much of the country’s 2 million square kilometers of tropical savanna., shows how a single invasive grass species can alter both rangelands and forests.
In Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park, for example, she has tracked how a handful of invasive grasses—many introduced by cattle ranchers—have altered environments once rarely touched by fire. Studying places that first burned in 1970, D’Antonio found that in forests dominated by the native ’Ōhi’a tree, relatively shade-tolerant beardgrass from South America took root first. But if the beardgrass later fuels a fire, she says, then a “second invader, molasses grass, pours in.
In Arizona’s Saguaro National Park, workers are trying to curb buffelgrass, which fuels blazes that threaten saguaro cacti.Drought could heighten the impact of the grass-fire cycle, suggest studies by ecologist Luke Flory of the University of Florida. He has run field experiments that simulate how drought affects longleaf pine forests invaded by cogon grass from Asia, which can grow in dense, waist-high thickets topped with fluffy seed heads.
Flory is reluctant to sound the alarm too loudly, because there are still plenty of unknowns about how drought, fire, and cogon grass will interact in the wild. But the experimental results so far are worrying, he says. “None of it’s good. … It’s just how much evidence we have that it’s really bad.
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