Trail based vegetation surveys of invasive plant species on Riparian Wetland adjacent to the Paw Paw River, Southwest Michigan

Abstract

Riparian areas play an important role in our increasingly modernized world, as they provide shelter to many native plants and animals and create a buffer zone between nature and civilization. Changes in rainfalls and droughts with climate change have already altered irrigation patterns, and since riparian areas are nutrient dense, have plenty of water supply, as well as open areas they become highly vulnerable to the invasion of non-native plant species, potentially altering the ecosystem from the bottom up. The purpose of this study was to look at the effects of nonnative plant species and human disturbance on the diversity of native plant species and asses if there was a significant effect on them.