Investigation of the relationships between biomass reduction, soil disturbance, soil nutrients and weed invasion in basalt plains native grassland remnants in Victoria, Australia

TL;DRAbstract

The investigations reported in this thesis examined the relationships between biomass reduction (burning and mowing), soil disturbance, soil nutrient levels (N, P and K) and weed invasion in native grassland remnants in Victoria, Australia. The study was carried out at three native grassland remnant sites, Derrimut grassland reserve, Laverton grassland reserve and Victoria University of Technology, St. Albans campus grassland reserve on the westem edge of Melboume, Australia. These grassland remnants belong to the Western Basalt Plains grassland community which is listed as threatened in Victoria, and which forms part of the lowland temperate grasslands which once extended across south eastern Australia. A major threat to the survival of these communities is invasion by a variety of weeds. Weed invasion is often markedly enhanced by disturbance of the soil due to ploughing and overgrazing. It is known that some type of biomass reduction (burning, mowing or grazing) is required to preve

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