Plant communities along Irish roads: the impact of humans and potential to improve biodiversity

Thompson, Rosalyn

Plant communities along Irish roads: the impact of humans and potential to improve biodiversity

dc.check.date	2023-06-19T08:45:13Z
dc.check.embargoformat	Apply the embargo to both hard bound copy and e-thesis (If you have submitted an e-thesis and a hard bound thesis and want to embargo both)	en
dc.check.entireThesis	Entire Thesis Restricted
dc.check.info	Restricted to everyone for three years	en
dc.check.opt-out	Not applicable	en
dc.check.reason	This thesis is due for publication or the author is actively seeking to publish this material	en
dc.contributor.advisor	Whelan, Padraig	en
dc.contributor.advisor	Lettice, Eoin	en
dc.contributor.advisor	Emmerson, Mark	en
dc.contributor.author	Thompson, Rosalyn
dc.contributor.funder	Environmental Protection Agency	en
dc.date.accessioned	2020-06-19T08:45:13Z
dc.date.issued	2019
dc.date.submitted	2019
dc.description.abstract	The vegetation, soil nutrients and soil seed banks of road verges (located along a national road scheme in the south of the Republic of Ireland) were examined along with their adjacent fields plus reference points in the non-road landscape. In addition, a controlled experiment was undertaken to assess the vulnerability of road verges (which followed different landscape treatments) to invasive non-native species. Regarding species richness, the road verge habitat was significantly greater than that found in the agricultural landscape except for field margins where there was no overall difference. However, the species richness of verges was significantly lower than that found in semi-natural grasslands. Road verges held greater resources for pollinators than the agricultural landscape, including field margins in many circumstances. Road verges contained the highest incidence of non-native species: few were recorded outside of the road landscape, thereby highlighting their capacity to act as corridors for non-native invasive species. Following an ecological landscape design could result in a verge significantly greater in both species richness and resources for pollinating insects than a traditional landscape treatment approach. The seed bank of the road verge contained more species than that of the adjacent field. A number of species were only found in the overall seed bank and were not recorded in any of the above-ground vegetation. There was a low co-efficient of similarity found between the above- and below-ground vegetation. Inclusion of a seed bank investigation can add significantly to a site’s overall species richness. Four invasive non-native species (Fallopia japonica, Rosa rugosa, Buddleja davidii and Petasites fragrans) were used to test the relative invasibility of four landscape treatments: two followed an ecological design, two a traditional approach. Undisturbed plant communities (following an ecological treatment or not) provided best resistance to invasion. Bare soil that had followed an ecological design (i.e. subsoil) resulted in plant that were significantly less robust than soil that had not (i.e. topsoil) due to the lower nutrient content.	en
dc.description.status	Not peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Accepted Version
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Thompson, R. 2019. Plant communities along Irish roads: the impact of humans and potential to improve biodiversity. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.	en
dc.identifier.endpage	582	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/10150
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	University College Cork	en
dc.relation.project	Environmental Protection Agency (Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for the Environment (STRIVE) Programme 2007-2013)	en
dc.rights	© 2019, Rosalyn Thompson.	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/	en
dc.subject	Biodiversity	en
dc.subject	Road verges	en
dc.subject	Landscape treatments	en
dc.subject	Ecosystem services	en
dc.subject	Landscape connectivity	en
dc.subject	Soil seed bank	en
dc.subject	Non-native invasive species	en
dc.subject	Ecological landscape treatment	en
dc.subject	Species richness	en
dc.subject	Nutrient availability	en
dc.subject	Pollinating insects	en
dc.subject	Non-native species	en
dc.thesis.opt-out	false
dc.title	Plant communities along Irish roads: the impact of humans and potential to improve biodiversity	en
dc.type	Doctoral thesis	en
dc.type.qualificationlevel	Doctoral	en
dc.type.qualificationname	PhD	en
ucc.workflow.supervisor	p.whelan@ucc.ie