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Garlic Mustard Distributions and Abundances Mapped Across Hiking Trails in the Catskills Park

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Jackson, Allyson K.
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Spring 2025
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2025
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As anthropogenic activity alters Earth's environments, non-native and invasive species are becoming more of a threat to native biodiversity. Disturbances in forest ecosystems give way to invasive monocultures, such as in the case of A. Petiolata (garlic mustard). Trails are intentional disturbances in forests meant to serve as recreation for people, but edge effects allow garlic mustard to grow in concerning quantities. I studied garlic mustard distributions along hiking trails in the Catskills region to shed light on an under-studied ecosystem and attempt to determine the vector of garlic mustard infestation along trails and trailhead parking lots using ArcGIS and Survey123. I also compared it to a previous study from 2007 which quantified garlic mustard abundances along hiking trails in the Catskills as well to analyze how distributions have changed over time. Through R statistical analyses, I found that garlic mustard has limits to its growth, negatively correlated with elevation and distance penetrated into each trail, but trailhead abundances were found to not be correlated with trail abundances. Garlic mustard abundances had changed significantly since 2007, with much higher levels of infestation on trails specifically than encountered in the previous study. Trail managers can use this research to make informed decisions about how to prevent the further spread of garlic mustard along trails, such as by mowing trailhead monocultures regularly and hand-pulling smaller infestations near disturbed areas such as lean-tos and tree-falls.
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