Consistent performance of invasive plant species within and among islands of the Mediterranean basin |
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Authors: | Anna Traveset Giuseppe Brundu Luisa Carta Irene Mprezetou Philip Lambdon Manuela Manca Frédéric Médail Eva Moragues Javier Rodríguez-Pérez Akis-Stavros D Siamantziouras Carey M Suehs Andreas Y Troumbis Montserrat Vilà Philip E Hulme |
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Institution: | 1. Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avan?ats (CSIC-UIB), University of the Balearic Islands, Miquel Marquès, 21, 07190, Esporles (Mallorca), Spain 2. Dipartimento di Botanica ed Ecologia Vegetale, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Sardinia, Italy 3. Biodiversity Conservation Laboratory, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, University Hill, 811 00, Mytilene, Lesbos, Greece 4. NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Banchory, Kincardineshire, AB31 4BW, Scotland, UK 5. Institut Méditerranéen d’Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP, UMR CNRS 6116), Université Paul Cézanne/Aix-Marseille III, Europ?le méditerranéen de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545, Aix-en-Provence cedex 04, France 6. Estación Biológica de Do?ana Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (EBD-CSIC), Avd/María Luisa s/n, Pabellón del Perú, 41013, Sevilla, Spain 7. National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 84, Canterbury, New Zealand
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Abstract: | Since the success of an invasive species depends not only upon its intrinsic traits but also on particular characteristics
of the recipient habitat, assessing the performance of an invader across habitats provides a more realistic analysis of risk.
Such an analysis will not only provide insights into the traits related to invasiveness, but also the habitat characteristics
that underpin vulnerability to invasion that, taken together, will facilitate the selection of management strategies to mitigate
the invader’s effect. In the present study, we considered the Mediterranean basin islands as an excellent study region to
test how the same invasive species perform in different habitats within a single island, and to scale up differences among
islands with similar climate. We tested how the performance of three widespread plant invaders with clonal growth but contrasting
life-history traits, a deciduous tree Ailanthus altissima, a succulent subshrub Carpobrotus spp., and an annual geophyte Oxalis pes-caprae, varied depending upon the species identity, habitat, and invaded island. The environmental parameters considered were habitat
type, elevation, species diversity in the invaded plot, and several soil traits (% C, % N, C/N, pH, and relative humidity).
The study documents that the performance of these three important and widespread plant invaders is dependent mainly on species
identity, and less upon the invaded island’s general features. Likewise, differences in performance among habitats were only
significant in the case of Ailanthus, whereas Carpobrotus and Oxalis appear to perform equally well in different environments. Ailanthus thus appears to have a broader spectrum of invasiveness, being able to invade a larger number of habitat types. On the contrary,
Carpobrotus spp. have not yet invaded habitats different from those where the species have been originally introduced and where they
are still commonly spread by humans. Oxalis distribution is mainly related to agricultural activities and disturbed sites, and the total area infested by this geophyte
may be more reflection of the extent of suitable habitats than of invasiveness or ecological impact. Our results confirm the
potential for these species to significantly alter the functioning of ecosystems in the Mediterranean islands and highlight
the risk to other islands not yet invaded. |
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Keywords: | Alien plants Ailanthus altissima Carpobrotus spp Habitat variation Mediterranean ecosystems Oxalis pes-caprae Plant invaders |
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