Hema Singh

Impact of rainfall variability and grass competition on invasive plant establishment and soil attributes

DST-SERB (ANRF)

The invasion of alien species in different ecosystems, particularly savannas, is gaining wider research attention in the climate change scenario. In recent years, although many precipitation manipulations experiments have been performed in various ecosystems, the understanding of how the invasive plant-soilclimate interaction will control ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling is still lacking. This study will identify the research gap (by considering two invasive species viz., Prosopis juliflora and Leucaena leucocephala growing under rainfall conditions) and how co-occurring invasive species influence each other i.e., neutral, facilitative or competitive interaction under different precipitation regimes, how the presence of grass influence seedling growth and performance under ambient conditions and how the invasive species are mediating soil nutrient pools and processes for better adaptation under different precipitation regimes and grass competition.