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Harvard Forest Research Project 2022
- Title: Source-sink metapopulation dynamics of invasion by Alliaria petiolata
- Principal investigator: Kristina Stinson (kstinson@eco.umass.edu)
- Institution: University of Massachusetts - Amherst
- Primary contact: Laura Hancock (lhancock@umass.edu)
- Team members:
- Abstract:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard) is an invasive herb in North America that is known to impact above and below ground forest understory communities. Though largely restricted to forest edge microhabitats in the home range, garlic mustard invades intact forest understories in North America. Different environmental conditions and community compositions between edge and understory microhabitats could select for different traits, leading to divergence in characteristics and demography over time. Long-term monitoring of active invasions is rare and can provide insight into the invasion process. This novel study examines a metapopulation of garlic mustard distributed across forest edge, intermediate, and forest understory growth microhabitats over a long-term time scale (~20 years).
