The following series of articles is taken from a study that was performed and printed in the Journal of Environmental Management "Testing the capacity of clothing to act as a vector for non-native seed in protected areas." by Ann Mount, Catherine Marina Pickering.
Although humans are a major mechanism for short and long distance seed dispersal, there is limited research testing clothing as a vector. The effect of different types of material (sports vs hiking socks), or different items of clothing (boots, socks, laces vs legs) or the same item (socks) worn in different places on seed composition were assessed in Kosciuszko National Park, Australia. Data was analyzed using Repeated Measures ANOVA, independent and paired t-tests, Multi-dimensional Scaling Ordinations and Analysis of Similarity. A total of 24,776 seeds from 70 taxa were collected from the 207 pieces of clothing sampled, with seed identified from 31 native and 19 non-native species. Socks worn off-track collected more native seeds while those worn on roadsides collected more non-native seeds. Sports socks collected a greater diversity of seeds and more native seeds than hiking socks. Boots, uncovered socks and laces collect more seeds than covered socks and laces, resulting in 17% fewer seeds collected when wearing trousers. With seeds from over 179 species (134 recognized weeds) collected on clothing in this,
and nine other studies, it is clear that clothing contributes to unintended human mediated seed
dispersal, including for many invasive species.
1. Introduction
Anthropogenic mass movement of species is one of the greatest environmental challenges faced by conservation organizations (WRI, 1992; IUCN, 2000). Human activities are an important mechanism for long distance dispersal of plants and animals including invasive species Human mediated dispersal of plants can be deliberate for agricultural and ornamental purposes (Groves et al., 2005; Benvenuti, 2007), or accidental such as through agricultural seed contamination in: soil (Rejmanek, 2000; Benvenuti, 2007), garden waste (Groves et al., 2005; Hulme, 2006), on equipment or even on clothing (Table 1). Both deliberate and accidental introductions have dramatically increased the scale and rate at which plants are dispersed, including many invasive species (Reichard and Hamilton, 1997; Groves et al., 2005; Wichmann
et al., 2009). Limiting human mediated dispersal of non-native plants is important, particularly when they are invasive. Invasive plants can adversely affect flora and fauna, prevent the recruitment of native plants, alter hydrology and nutrient content of soils, change fire regimes, and affect fauna that use the plants for food and habitat (Csurhes and Edwards,1998; Williams andWest, 2000; Mayers and Bazely, 2003). Although there is renewed interest in understanding
the invasive process, there is still limited research on the initial dispersal of species, particularly empirical studies (Puth and Post, 2005). For example out of 873 recent articles examining the process of invasion of exotic species, only 15 were empirical studies examining the initial dispersal of species in terrestrial systems. The initial step in unintended human mediated seed dispersal is seed attachment. Although seeds are commonly observed on socks, laces, boots and trousers there is limited empirical data on clothing as a seed vector (Table 1). The authors have only found nine published empirical studies, and only three involved statistical testing
of hypothesis. Seven studies examined seed attached to shoes and/or boots, four examined socks, two examined laces and four examined seed on trousers. Only two of the studies examined dispersal (Bullock and Primack, 1977; Wichmann et al., 2009). Based on the nine studies 139 species of plants have been identified that have seeds that can attach to clothing and hence have the potential to be dispersed by humans over long distances. Although these studies established that clothing can be an important mechanism for human mediated seed dispersal,
research is required to quantify the amount and composition of seeds that can collect on clothing, and determine if factors such as the location the clothing is worn, the type of material it is made of, and if different clothing items, affect the amount and type of seeds collected. For example, the surface area of the item, the location (such as height) of the item and the adhesive quality of the item are all likely to effect seed attachment to clothing (Bullock and Primack, 1977; Whinam et al., 2005). Different combinations of clothing may affect what seeds attach so that someone wearing shorts, socks, shoelaces and boots may collect different seed than if they were wearing trousers which covered the socks, shoelaces and the top of boots. There are also likely to be differences in the seeds collected when hiking through disturbed areas such as roadsides and car
parks where there are many non-native plant species, to the seeds collected when hiking in intact native vegetation away from roads and tracks. As hikes can commence from roadsides and car parks there is the risk that people may carry non-native seeds from these areas into the natural vegetation in protected areas. The objectives of this study were to experimentally test aspects of seed attachment to clothing as part of assessing the risk of human mediated seed dispersal including for non-native plants. Three field experiments were conducted in a popular national park with high conservation values, Kosciuszko National Park, to determine: (1) What seeds are collected on clothing (species and number, native vs non-native); (2) If there are differences in the seeds collected on socks depending on where someonewalks; (3) If there are differences in the seeds collected on different types of socks; (4) If there are differences in the seeds collected on different items of clothing (boots, socks, laces and trouser leg) and d (5) if
wearing trousers reduces the amount of seeds collected.
(WRI, 1992; IUCN, 2000;
Groves et al., 2005; Nathan, 2008; Wichmann et al., 2009).
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ61 7 5552 8059; fax: þ61 7 5552 8067.
E-mail address: c.pickering@griffith.edu.au (C.M. Pickering).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Environmental Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman
0301-4797/$ – see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.08.002
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, who with his wife, Donna, started The Natural Gait.
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