Riparian and coastal habitats are the most important donors of invasive plants of European origin
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2011 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Vegetation in and around water: patterns, processes and threats |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Botany |
| Keywords | alien species; habitat invasibility; level of invasion; primary range; secondary range |
| Description | Many habitats worldwide are subjected to an increasing input of invasive plants, but several studies have shown that habitats differ in the resulting levels of invasion. Although unveiling the determinants of invasion success among habitats has become an important research agenda, there is still limited knowledge of the effects of invaders’ habitats in their primary range on their performance in the secondary range. To find the main donors of invasive plants originating from Europe, 37 broadly delimited European habitat types were derived from the Map of the Natural Vegetation of Europe (Bohn et al. 2004). Lists of native species for these habitats were extracted from the description of mapping units. European species naturalized outside their primary ranges were identified using two sources: (1) Floristic Synthesis of North America (Kartesz 2010) and U. S. Federal and State Weed Lists (USDA, NCRS 2010) for North America and (2) the catalog of global invasive plants (Weber 2003) for the world. Species habitat affiliation in the invaded range was examined using 11 terrestrial WWF ecoregions available in the Synthesis and invaded habitats’ description in Weber’s catalog. Similar patterns of invaders’ donor habitats were revealed for both North America and the world. The most important sources of naturalized or invasive plants were alluvial forests together with alder cars, coastal sand-dunes and the heaths of Western Europe. The highest numbers of species from these habitats were found to invade shoreline ecoregions of North America and riparian habitats, freshwater wetlands, pastures and coastal habitats such as scrub, dunes and beaches of the world. Moreover, European habitats donating the highest proportion of invasive species to other continents were also most invaded by extra-European aliens. This suggests an important role of riparian and coastal habitats in invasion. Similar processes involving disturbances and fluctuations of available resources shape the biota of these habitats. Therefore, they are both prone to invasion and serve as a source of alien species for other continents. |
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