Biological invasion of native plant communities is a high-priority problem in the field of environmental management. Resource managers, biologists, and all those involved in plant communities must consider ecological interactions when assessing both the effects of plant invasion and the long-term effects of management. Sections of the book cover human perceptions of invading plants, assessment of ecological interactions, direct management, and regulation and advocacy. It also includes an appendix with descriptive data for many of the worst weeds.

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SECTION I. Human Perceptions.- 1. Defining Indigenous Species: An Introduction.- 2. Defining Weeds of Natural Areas.- 3. Potential Valuable Ecological Functions of Nonindigenous Plants.- SECTION II. Assessment of Ecological Interactions.- 4. Documenting Natural and Human-Caused Plant Invasions Using Paleoecological Methods.- 5. Community Response to Plant Invasion.- 6. Impacts of Invasive Plants on Community and Ecosystem Properties.- 7. Animal-Mediated Dispersal and Disturbance: Driving Forces Behind Alien Plant Naturalization.- 8. Outlook for Plant Invasions: Interactions with Other Agents of Global Change.- 9. Experimental Design for Plant Removal and Restoration.- 10. Response of a Forest Understory Community to Experimental Removal of an Invasive Nonindigenous Plant (Alliaria petiolata, Brassicaceae).- SECTION III. Direct Management.- 11. Management of Plant Invasions: Implicating Ecological Succession.- 12. Methods for Management of Nonindigenous Aquatic P] ants.- 13. Biological Control of Weeds in the United States and Canada.- 14. Prioritizing Invasive Plants and Planning for Management.- SECTION IV. Regulation and Advocacy.- 15. Prevention of Invasive Plant Introductions on National and Local Levels.- 16. Exotic Pest Plant Councils: Cooperating to Assess and Control Invasive Nonindigenous Plant Species.- 17. Team Arundo: Interagency Cooperation to Control Giant Cane (Arundo donax).- 18. A Multiagency Containment Program for Miconia (Miconia calvescens), an Invasive Tree in Hawaiian Rain Forests.- Appendix: Selected Plant Species Interfering with Resource Management Goals in North American Natural Areas.- References.