Date of Completion
2023
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources
Thesis Type
Honors College
First Advisor
Eric Roy
Second Advisor
Gillian Galford
Third Advisor
Aaron Mrotek
Keywords
Invasive species, glyphosate, Aravaipa Canyon, Vinca major, environmental conditions
Abstract
Invasive species are one of the top global threats to biodiversity, and guidelines for context-dependent local management of invasive species is needed. Vinca major is a vine native to Eurasia that acts as an invasive in the Southwestern United States, including Aravaipa Canyon, an ecologically important corridor with a rare perennial stream in the Sonoran Desert. Eradication efforts for V. major in the canyon focus on glyphosate (Roundup) application. However, detailed guidance on the ideal environmental conditions under which to apply glyphosate to achieve maximum V. major die-off would be useful to land managers and is a current knowledge gap. To address this gap, a treatment experiment was conducted in the field. Plots of mature V. major were sprayed with glyphosate at regular intervals throughout the spring of 2022, capturing seasonal changes environmental conditions including temperature, humidity, daylight, and precipitation across the winter-summer gradient. Glyphosate had a substantial impact on V. major die-off, with early spring being the most effective time of application and late spring being less effective. Application date was a strong predictor of die-off and no single environmental factor was a better predictor of glyphosate efficacy. Date of application likely captures a combination of the many environmental factors that change over the course of the spring, such as temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and length of daylight. Based on these results, I recommend that spring glyphosate application on V. major be carried out no later than Julian date 100, or April 9 th -10th .
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Rosenau, Emma S., "The Impact of Environmental Factors on Invasive Vinca major Management in the Sonoran Desert" (2023). UVM Honors College Senior Theses. 604.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/604