Doctoral Dissertation Research: Socio-Environmental Dynamics and History of the Biological Invasion of Pasture Grasses: The Case of Kikuyu Grass in Southern Peru

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Owing to a large number of local studies from around the world plant invasions have come to be characterized as a significant component of human-caused global environmental change. This assertion rests on the not-yet-demonstrated hypothesis that dynamics causing localized plant invasion operate independent of scale and therefore also explain invasions regionally and globally. Limited appreciation of the intricacies of human-environment interactions renders invasions a spatially undifferentiated process. Verifying such a hypothesis is highly problematic, because it questions principles of scale and hierarchy governing complex social and ecological processes operating over large areas. Addressing this issue has important theoretical and practical implications, as the question of relating phenomena across scales has been described by Levin as "the central problem in biology and in all of sciences". This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the ecological, biogeographical, and social processes associated with the establishment in southern Peru of kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum Hochst. ex Chiov.), an invasive species originally brought from Africa in the 1920s. Special attention will be given to scalar and spatial variations in the socio-environmental dynamics of land use in the region. An integrated set of research approaches will be used, including agricultural sector analyses, transect analyses of village activities, questionnaires and oral histories, ethno-cartographic construction of maps by villagers, time-lapse photo interpretation, and archival research. This project will provide valuable new insights into the role of scale and space in the land-use dynamics associated with the invasion of exotic species, a topic of great practical utility as well as have theoretical significance. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.