Biological control of vines: A review of past efforts, evaluation, and future directions

Vines are among the most damaging groups of invasive plants worldwide, and, as such, have been targets of numerous biological control efforts. In this article, we review these efforts, agent establishment, and impacts, and provide recommendations for future efforts. Researchers have targeted 31 species of vines representing 20 plant families for biological control in some capacity, the majority of which have occurred in the mainland USA. Of the targeted vine species, 17 have at least one established biological control agent, and 34 agents of vine species are considered established worldwide. The impacts of the established agents have been assessed experimentally in the field using either chemical exclusion or agent addition approaches in only 49% of cases. While studies often measured impact via various plant responses (e.g., percent cover) or demographic vital rates (e.g., seed production, germination), we did not find any published studies documenting population decline (e.g., numbers of individuals) of an invasive vine due to biological control that met our criteria, and few studies focused on the recovery of the native plant community. Based on our literature review, we recommend that researchers working on biological control of vines: (1) determine suitable impact metrics based on the vine species' impact, (2) assess agent impact using chemical-exclusion studies, (3) scale up impact studies to vine populations, (4) evaluate the recovery of native plant communities and ecosystems, and (5) investigate how other control methods can be integrated with biological control of vines. We hope that incorporating our recommendations into research will ultimately improve the development, evaluation, and implementation of biological control of vines.

Automated summary

This article reviews the efforts, establishment of agents, and impacts of biological control of vines, and provides recommendations for future research. Researchers have targeted 31 species of invasive vines for biological control, with 17 species having established control agents. However, there is a lack of studies showing population decline of invasive vines due to biological control.