As we continue to reinforce the theme of how all of life is connected and that the elimination/extinction of a native plant or animal and an addition of a plant or animal brought in by man from other Countries can throw an ecosystem into a tailspin, research from the U. of Minnesota on the European/Asian Common Buckthorn brings this thesis to real light------In Midwestern and Eastern Forests, Buckthorn grows in dense stands that are difficult for people and animals to walk through............... It increases nest predation of birds, decreases amphibian populations, and changes mammal habits............. It shades out understory plants and decreases flowering of native herbs and growth of tree seedlings. ........... Buckthorn has a different phenology (timing of life events) than the native plants.............It leafs out earlier in the spring and holds its leaves later into the fall, meaning that it is actively growing and taking up nutrients after native plants have already gone dormant for the winter.............. Buckthorn is effectively capturing nitrogen that would otherwise have been leached, or lost, out of the system in rainwater............ Since nitrogen is often a limiting nutrient in temperate forests, Researchers have found invasive plants are often more capable of taking advantage of increases in nitrogen than native plants................. This means that buckthorn’s increase in soil nitrogen may feedback to further buckthorn invasion, or encourage the invasion of other nonnative species, such as honeysuckle or garlic mustard..................As we humans intentionally or unintentionally "leach" plant and animal alien invaders from other Continents into our natural systems, we are ultimately wreaking havoc that might be impossible to undue, leading to losses of natural systems that historically have made our lives better

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001E9k6mxqRXb6YMNMUSvSO8VKhRhR2Gcp840NhuSp6Bs5gXxrq-W75w3JTqNAkThez5hiAgm-CiFlSjkUnNQoQ_YGj5bSCFH-EqUUtg_hFEDh75QoqCCyzCyiJg6oPHC1Ky30oVCJ9Xui1AlSo8xp26wngOWhYlzLreGNy8pKVviBhbpMr5qFvqGSFh9h5wb8QdkbDuUXldq2xqKIu-jK_esdmCCAGExSj2BufZuw1FIFzd1qdbiSVP-UlCKC0qRgqgn4AC6_5TPuSZtYoCnlO1ismndWpnnnEHOGXf8nsF0KZDRIpubOlvDqPBgS-A0nFA8jG7K6-0uUOLt40ZRkfEHYQvfeox0-kmLernv1Q8abLEI9kcWsDYnULt4CP7MYzuMRE-c7vrLk=&c=QtAiNNbpBJ2wAJ674jytqopYnLLKMxDWIWLHDE1NlX_7GN2ILdYvuA==&ch=jpth6MBGp42KOjjBB5WR83exelQlIBzIAOvs94DTJa-K9JCPkPqkLw==

Unseen changes: Common buckthorn’s 

effects on soil nutrients

By: Alexandra (Sascha) Lodge, Ph.D., UMN Natural
 Resources Science and Management

Research area at Warner Nature Center
 with many tall buckthorn stems.
Photo credit: Sascha Lodge.

Green leaves of buckthorn are visible
 long after the native oak trees have
 dropped their leaves in early November.
 Photo credit: Alex Roth.

For more information about this
 research, as well as related projects,
 please visit:

http://forestecology.cfans.umn.edu/
Research/Buckthorn/index.htm