Native plant reestablishment in alein annual grasslands on Santa Cruz Island

This project's aim is to gather a mechanistic understanding of why native plants can and can not reestablish within alien annual grasslands. Specifically I am asking how Eriogonum grande and Corepsis giganteum seedlings interact with grass seedlings (via competition) and grass litter from the previous year (via light reduction). I currently have plots at two sites: Centinela and Pelican Harbor. At both of these sites, I have established 32 .25m x .25m plots along a transect that runs approximately 1m away from adult stands of Eriogonum grande. These plots receive one of the following manipulations: (1) no manipulation (control), (2) alien grass seedling removal, (3) alien grass litter removal, and (4) alien grass seedling and litter removal. I also have 32 .25m x .25m plots situated with in the adult populations which receive the same four manipulations. By comparing plots within adult populations and outside of adult populations I can use seedfall rate as a covariate in my data to ask how important propogule pressure is to native plant reestablishment. In addition, at the Pelican Harbor site, I have a similar experiment set up for Coreopsis. The purpose of this project is to maintain plot manipulations (i.e., pull grass seedlings) and to count seedlings of target native species.