Economic costs of invasive plants
Few studies exist that quantify the economic costs of managing invasive plants. Here we analyzed 6 years of historic management expenditures for state and federal agencies of Florida. We show that spending was roughly $45M / year, how spending varied across problematic species, and analyze the effectiveness of expenditures using the case study of Hydrilla verticillata. (link to paper)
Fire intensity
We tested the hypothesis that invaded dominated plots would produce more intense fires than native dominated plots. This work was conducted in Dr. Luke Flory’s experimental invasion/drought plots which allowed us to look at the impact of both drought and plant invasions on fire intensity. (link to paper)
Experimental methodology for evaluating fuel characteristics on fire intensity
We built an apparatus to maintain vertical orientation of fine fuel loads to test the hypothesis that vertical orientation of fuel loads (standing vs piled) would produce more realistic estimates of fire behavior. (link to paper)
