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EVALUATING SOIL MITIGATION TACTICS AND ALTERNATE SHRUB SELECTION TO CREATE MORE SUSTAINABLE RESIDENTIAL LANDSCAPES By MATTHEW AMOS BORDEN A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2020 © 2020 Matthew Amos Borden To my parents, Jeffrey and Patricia, and Grandmother CJ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I wish to thank my parents for fostering an environment of learning and curiosity about the natural world from a young age, and for supporting my career path at each step. I also thank Grandmother CJ and late Grandfather Noel Borden for their many years of encouragement and generous financial support given towards my undergraduate education. Next, I wish to express deep appreciation Dr. Adam Dale, my major advisor. I have often said there is no other lab I would rather have landed in here, and I remain immensely grateful. Adam has been a role model of perseverance with good attitude, excellence in writing skills, and ambition in the pursuit of rigorous experiments and data that can make a difference in improving our environment. I am also grateful that he afforded me many opportunities for extension writing, speaking engagements, conference attendance, for supporting my interest in tea plants and associated pests, and for tolerating my many side-projects and scattered plant collections. I also thank the members of the Dale Lab for their support, baked goods, and friendship; particularly Dr. Nicole Benda, who coordinated much of the field work, thatch analysis, and EPN experiment. I am extremely grateful to all those who endured hot Florida days or counting thousands of organisms to assist with data collection and plant care, including Lauren Dana, Mark Wilhelm, Alex LoCastro, Kendall Stacey, Tanner Felbinger, and Rebecca Perry. Lastly, I thank several other advisors: Dr. Amanda Hodges, who made it possible to study concurrently in the DPM program and provided many professional development opportunities; committee members Dr. Adam Dale and Dr. Oscar Liburd for reviewing this thesis; Dr. Keith Yoder, who supported my pursuit of graduate education from afar; Lyle Buss, who provided photography resources and many pleasant insect mystery conversations; and Dr. Jay Stipes, who offered great wisdom, friendship, and the gift of his personal library. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................7 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................8 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................10 Challenges Associated with Urban Landscapes .....................................................................10 System I – Soil Mitigation for Lawns .....................................................................................11 Benefits and Challenges Associated with Urban Landscapes .........................................11 Soil Mitigation Strategies ................................................................................................12 System II – Shrub Selection ...................................................................................................13 Tea Scale: an Armored Scale Insect Pest ........................................................................14 Tea Scale Management ....................................................................................................16 Camellia sinensis: Potential in the Landscape ................................................................18 Ilex vomitoria: Potential in the Landscape ......................................................................19 Summary of Other Plant-Ecosystem Interactions ...........................................................21 Research Objectives and Thesis Structure ..............................................................................24 2 EFFECTS OF SOIL MITIGATION PRACTICES ON TERRESTRIAL INVERTEBRATES FOLLOWING RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT ..............................25 Abstract ...................................................................................................................................25 Introduction .............................................................................................................................26 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................................29 Study Site .........................................................................................................................29 Experimental Design .......................................................................................................30 Survey of Lawn-dwelling Invertebrates ..........................................................................31 Quantifying Detritivores and Thatch Decomposition .....................................................32 Entomopathogenic Nematode Biological Control ...........................................................33 Statistical Analysis ..........................................................................................................34 Results.....................................................................................................................................35 Survey of Lawn-dwelling Invertebrates ..........................................................................35 Detritivores and Thatch Decomposition ..........................................................................36 Entomopathogenic Nematode Biological Control ...........................................................36 Discussion ...............................................................................................................................37 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................40 5 3 NATIVE AND EDIBLE PLANTS ENHANCE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES THROUGH KEY PEST AVOIDANCE AND MULTIFUNCTIONALITY IN RESIDENTIAL LANDSCAPES.......................................................................................................................52 Abstract ...................................................................................................................................52 Introduction .............................................................................................................................53 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................................57 Study Organisms .............................................................................................................57 Tea Scale Inoculations .....................................................................................................57 Host Susceptibility Evaluation ........................................................................................58 Statistical Analysis ..........................................................................................................59 Results.....................................................................................................................................60 Host Susceptibility ...........................................................................................................60 Host Plant Damage ..........................................................................................................61 Discussion ...............................................................................................................................62 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................67 4 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................71 LIST OF REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................73 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................86 6 LIST OF TABLES Table page 2-1 Results of ANOVA models to examine the effects of treatment, sampling date, the interaction of treatment and date........................................................................................51 3-1 Susceptibility of Ilex and Camellia species to Fiorinia theae, as measured by the number of infested leaves per plant, total and gravid females per infested leaf, and the susceptibility metric .....................................................................................................68 3-2 Mottling damage observed on Ilex and Camellia species due to Fiorinia theae feeding, as measured by the number of infested leaves per plant, percentage of infested leaves with mottling, and their product as a damage metric ................................69 3-3 Number of leaves and percentage of leaves infested with Fiorinia theae, that prematurely abscised from Ilex spp. during an environmentally