Historical Introduction of Non-native Plants
Located between the cities of New York and Philadelphia, the state of New Jersey has a rich history centered around shipping and trade facilitating the movement of a large amount of people and goods to and from North America over the last 300 years. Throughout the nineteenth century, ships used large quantities of ballast stones for stabilization during their voyages. This ballast was often temporarily or permanently deposited in the harbors and on piers along with inadvertently imported plant parts, fruits, and seeds that were embedded in sediment on the ballast. Some of those non-native species were seen once and then lost, others became part of the permanent flora.
In this project we are evaluating the current status of the species recorded in the herbarium record using herbarium records from institutions associated with the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis project, to study the retention and spread of these species in New Jersey (including common weeds and invasive species such as Artemisia vulgaris, Lotus corniculatus, Trifolium hybridum, and Tussilago farfara) We are currently mapping ballast species using georeferenced records to determine how their distributions have changed through space and time within New Jersey in connection with patterns in urbanization and railroad development. The results will provide insights into the factors that influence the spread of non-native species into new areas and illuminate spatio-temporal trends in plant invasion ecology and floristic patterns globally. |
Verbena bracteata growing on Petty's Island in the Delaware River.
Click here to see a preliminary presentation on this project given at the Botany 2021 conference!
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