Does habitat manipulation enhance native woody seedling recruitment in a dryland river floodplain?
Recruitment failure of native plants is common in dryland ecosystems in New Zealand. We investigated whether herbicide control of invasive grasses or restoration of either shrub cover or the natural disturbance regime (river gravel deposition after flooding) can promote seedling establishment of the critically endangered shrub Olearia adenocarpa and two common species also found in river floodplain ecosystems (Carmichaelia australis and Sophora microphylla).