Interpreting Life-History Traits of Miconia (Miconia calvescens) through Management over Space and Time in the East Maui Watershed, Hawaii (USA)

Invasive Species, Kimberly Burnett, Christopher Wada, Environment, Publications

Miconia (Miconia calvescens DC) was introduced to the East Maui Watershed (EMW) a half-century ago with more than 25 years of management recorded. Using a historical spatiotemporal data set, we constructed a dispersal kernel for miconia in the EMW. Seedbank persistence, based on postdated recruitment, displayed an exponential decay projecting extinction beyond 20 years. In a simulated stage matrix model, we projected management efforts to locally eradicate a small incipient propagule bank wherein optimal management was achieved with an annual harvest rate that eliminated all juvenile recruits before reaching maturity, until extinction. In a scenario prioritizing the upper region of EMW, we retroactively analyzed past HBT efforts eliminating satellite M. calvescens.