Disturb soil/sediment surface: freshwater swamps
Overall effectiveness category No evidence found (no assessment)
Number of studies: 0
Background information and definitions
This action involves shallow disturbance of the top few centimetres of soil/sediment in degraded swamps (e.g. by tilling, ploughing, disking or scarifying) without permanently removing any material. Such disturbance may encourage the growth of desirable plants. It can break up any hard soil crust, or create bare patches clear of competing vegetation or litter in which new plants can grow. Swamp plants may colonize from nearby habitat patches, or germinate from propagules (e.g. seeds, spores or root/rhizome fragments) already in the soil. The first colonizing plants will typically be fast-growing, weedy species – but these may also be desirable members of target plant communities, or act as nurse plants for later desirable communities.