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Diversity
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Invasive Alien Plant Species: Encroachment Mechanisms, Impact on Soils, Environment...
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Invasive Alien Plant Species: Encroachment Mechanisms, Impact on Soils, Environment and Ecosystem Services

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Diversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2022) | Viewed by 6712

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Marcin W. Woch

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute Of Biology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Interests: alien species, biological invasions; conservation biology; ecology; ecotoxicology; plants; plant-microbe interactions; threatened species; urban plants

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biological invasions constitute important problems of human-induced alterations on a global scale. Invaders can reduce biological diversity and promote extinctions, act as a vector of diseases and generate economic losses. Crucial ecosystem processes and properties, such as primary productivity, organic matter decomposition, hydrology, geomorphology, element cycling and natural disturbance regimes, may be affected by biological invasions. The invasion rate of exotic species is expected to increase in coming decades, mainly due to the expansion of global trade, agriculture and other human activities. The most invasive species are associated with anthropogenically disturbed ecosystems, which have been estimated to constitute ca. 23% of the global ice-free land area. However, some alien species invade natural habitats and alter ecosystem structure and functions as they differ from non-invasive plant species in traits related to physiology, leaf-area allocation, shoot allocation, growth rate, size and overall fitness. Plant invaders considerably reduce diversity and abundance and/or change the composition of aboveground and belowground communities, including soil microbiome communities. Modifications in activity, biomass, diversity and composition of soil microbiome communities are often accompanied by changes in the rate of important soil processes such as organic matter decay and mineralization, nitrogen fixation and symbiotic interactions. Additionally, physical and/or chemical soil properties are altered either directly or indirectly through modifications of soil microbiome by invasions. Invader-mediated modifications of the soil parameters can also result in positive feedback that stabilize or accelerate invasion. The changes in soil may persist after the removal of an invasive plant (invasive plants’ legacy) and limit recolonization by native plant communities. This has implications for the restoration of invaded sites.

Prof. Dr. Marcin W. Woch
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • allelopathy
  • community disassembly
  • functional traits
  • invasion processes
  • invasion legacy effects
  • interspecific competition
  • niche differences
  • plant-microbe interactions
  • secondary metabolites
  • soil nutrient cycling processes
  • soil protection and rehabilitation

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 5207 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Habitat Selection by Invasive Plants and Conditions with the Best Performance of Invasiveness Traits
by Emilia Grzędzicka
Diversity 2023, 15(3), 333; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15030333 - 25 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1777
Abstract
Habitat selection is one of the fundamental concepts in ecology and means that each organism should choose the habitat that will maximize its success. Invaders may be an underestimated object in research on habitat selection. Invasive plants experience enormous propagule pressure and bear [...] Read more.
Habitat selection is one of the fundamental concepts in ecology and means that each organism should choose the habitat that will maximize its success. Invaders may be an underestimated object in research on habitat selection. Invasive plants experience enormous propagule pressure and bear the costs of spreading in disturbed anthropogenic habitats. It means that they do not necessarily achieve maximum invasiveness traits in such habitats, which they selected to colonize. This study aimed to assess habitats where invaders are likely to occur from the set of all available ones in the landscape and the habitats with the best performed traits of invaders. The research was conducted on 52 and 112 plots in 2019 and 2021, respectively, in South-Eastern Poland, and the invasive plants were Caucasian hogweeds Heracleum sp. In the first year, the circle plots had a 50 m radius and were to measure habitat areas and traits of hogweeds (height, number of individuals in the plot, cover, and number of flowering specimens). Detrimental correspondence analysis and linear mixed model investigated that hogweeds achieved the best performance reflected by traits in continuous habitats—meadows and forests. In the second year, the plots to measure habitats had a 100 m radius. The reference plots were far from the invasion exposure, and the paired control vs. Heracleum ones had the same habitats with the potential to be invaded. The generalized linear mixed model showed that the probability of the hogweeds occurrence was higher when the habitat was overgrowing with a simultaneous decrease in open areas and in the increasing ruderal area with a decrease in bushes. The impact of the invader’s habitat on the invasion performance depended on the purpose of habitat selection. When invaders spread and increased invasive extent or appeared in habitat edges, they did not reach the highest traits, the best performing in continuous habitats. The specificity of habitat selection of invaders is another aspect that distinguishes invasion science from classic ecology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Invasive Alien Plant Species: Encroachment Mechanisms, Impact on Soils, Environment and Ecosystem Services)
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16 pages, 5702 KiB  
Article
Pinus contorta Alters Microenvironmental Conditions and Reduces Plant Diversity in Patagonian Ecosystems
by Rafael A. García, Eduardo Fuentes-Lillo, Lohengrin Cavieres, Ana J. Cóbar-Carranza, Kimberley T. Davis, Matías Naour, Martín A. Núñez, Bruce D. Maxwell, Jonas J. Lembrechts and Aníbal Pauchard
Diversity 2023, 15(3), 320; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15030320 - 22 Feb 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2204
Abstract
Pinus contorta is considered one of the most invasive tree species worldwide, generating significant impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. In several Patagonian ecosystems in southern Chile, it has escaped from plantations established mainly in the 1970s, and is now invading both forests and [...] Read more.
Pinus contorta is considered one of the most invasive tree species worldwide, generating significant impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. In several Patagonian ecosystems in southern Chile, it has escaped from plantations established mainly in the 1970s, and is now invading both forests and treeless environments. In this study, we evaluated the impact of the invasion of P. contorta on microenvironmental conditions in Araucaria araucana forest and Patagonian steppe ecosystems, and assessed how these changes related to the richness and abundance of native and non-native plant species. In each ecosystem, 24 plots of 100 m2 were established along a gradient of P. contorta biomass, where 18 environmental variables and the composition of native and non-native vegetation were measured at a local scale. Our results indicated that increased pine biomass was associated with differences in microclimatic conditions (soil and air temperature, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), and soil moisture) and soil properties (potassium, nitrate, pH, and litter accumulation). These changes were ecosystem dependent, however, as well as associated with the level of invasion. Finally, the reduction in the richness and abundance of native plants was associated with the changes in soil properties (accumulation of leaf litter, pH, and organic matter) as well as in the microclimate (minimum air temperature, PAR) generated by the invasion of P. contorta. Overall, our results confirm that the invasion of P. contorta impacts microenvironmental conditions (i.e., canopy cover, litter accumulation, minimum air temperature, and maximum soil temperature) and reduces native plant diversity. For future restoration plans, more emphasis should be given to how environmental changes can influence the recovery of invaded ecosystems even after the removal of the living pine biomass (i.e., legacy of the invasion). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Invasive Alien Plant Species: Encroachment Mechanisms, Impact on Soils, Environment and Ecosystem Services)
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18 pages, 1363 KiB  
Article
Soil Seed Bank of Alien and Native Cornus (Cornaceae) Taxa in Lithuania: What Determines Seed Density and Vertical Distribution in Soil?
by Lukas Petrulaitis, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Domas Uogintas and Zigmantas Gudžinskas
Diversity 2022, 14(6), 488; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14060488 - 15 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2010
Abstract
Soil seed banks of alien plant species are sources of propagules that play a crucial role in plant population dynamics. Studies on seed banks of woody alien species are crucial for understanding mechanisms of their encroachment on natural habitats. This study aimed to [...] Read more.
Soil seed banks of alien plant species are sources of propagules that play a crucial role in plant population dynamics. Studies on seed banks of woody alien species are crucial for understanding mechanisms of their encroachment on natural habitats. This study aimed to compare vertical distribution, density and composition of seed banks formed by native Cornus sanguinea subsp. sanguinea and alien C. alba, C. sericea and C. sanguinea subsp. australis in the Southern Hemiboreal zone of Europe. Five sites for each of four taxa were selected for the study, and seeds were sampled using the soil core method (400 samples in two soil layers: the upper, 0–5 cm, and the lower, 5–10 cm). Extracted seeds were tested with tetrazolium chloride stain to assess their viability. Differences in the seed banks among taxa were compared using generalised linear mixed models (GLMM). The GLMM analysis revealed significant differences in soil seed bank densities in the upper soil between the studied taxa (p < 0.001). We found that two of the alien taxa (C. alba and C. sanguinea subsp. australis) formed a much denser seed bank containing more viable seeds than the native Cornus sanguinea subsp. sanguinea. All three alien species contained more viable seeds (from 40.7% to 45.2% in the upper soil layer) than the native C. sanguinea subsp. sanguinea (19.4% in the upper and 18.2% in the lower soil layer). The cover of Cornus and habitat type had no significant effect on the density of the seed bank, according to GLMM. This study supports the hypothesis that seed banks of alien C. alba and C. sanguinea subsp. australis are denser than those of native C. sanguinea subsp. sanguinea. Furthermore, the seed bank of alien taxa contained more viable seeds than the seed bank of C. sanguinea subsp. sanguinea. Results of this study contribute to the understanding of the invasiveness of alien Cornus taxa. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Invasive Alien Plant Species: Encroachment Mechanisms, Impact on Soils, Environment and Ecosystem Services)
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