Introduction:
Certain native Phragmites australis populations have been regarded as invasive due to their aggressive and competitive abilities against other wetland plants. It has been shown that the introduction of this species type into plant communities has affected soil properties and nutrient pools. In this study, the biodiversity including indices of species evenness, species richness, and Shannon-Weiner index were determined to assess the effects of phragmites invasion in plant communities located in a wetland in Australia. Microbial activity and community structure were studies and analyzed to determine the potentiality of phragmites invasion at the community level. Three plant communities with various plant species will be used and …show more content…
Each community was separated by a 700-m distance. Diversity measurements including species evenness, species diversity, Shannon-Weiner index, and Simpson’s reciprocal index were determined, and five pairs of vegetation plots were sampled. Plots were placed in areas invaded by phragmites versus areas uninvaded by phragmites. Thirty vegetation plots were sampled in total, the number of species in each plot was counted and soil content was studied. Soil properties such as soil organic content, soil water content, soil pH, and electrical conductivity were determined using loss of ignition method, gravimetric method, pH method, and conductivity meter, respectively. Soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi species density was determined, and chloroform fumigation-extraction method was used to determined soil microbial biomass of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Native Melaleuca ericifolia seeds were used to analyze mycorrhizal associations in the presence of invasive phragmites. Paired t-tests and analysis of variance were used to analyze and compare all data collected and differences in invaded versus uninvaded vegetation plots among three