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The effect of pathogens on invasive plants
Sládečková, Julie ; Koubek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Čuda, Jan (referee)
Invasive plants can destroy entire ecosystems, reduce biodiversity and thus threaten the environment. Number of invasive species is increasing and so their negative impact on the environment. Various reasons can be behind the emergence of invasions, one of them is, for example, escaping from natural enemies. This can make the plant more competitive, have greater reproductive potential and spread better. However, if natural enemies are added to the new area, the number of invasive plants can be regulated. This is the principle of biocontrol, which is a method used to reducing the magnitude of invasions and their consequences. This method has almost no negative impacts on the environment, unlike chemical and mechanical methods of plant removal. Biocontrol has a long-term effect and therefore is also cheaper. However, when biocontrol is used, there is a certain risk that non-target plant species will be affected or that it will not be effective enough. Pathogens are also used as biocontrol agents because they are more specialized than herbivores, so the risk for non-target plants is lower. The aim of this thesis is to compare biological control with other methods used to removing invasive plants and to summarize the most significant positives and negatives of using fungal pathogens in plant biocontrol.
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