Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/54749
Share/Export:
SHARE CORE BASE | |
Visualizar otros formatos: MARC | Dublin Core | RDF | ORE | MODS | METS | DIDL | DATACITE | |
Title: | Widespread resistance of Mediterranean island ecosystems to the establishment of three alien species |
Authors: | Vilà, Montserrat CSIC ORCID; Siamantziouras, Akis-Stavros D.; Brundu, Giuseppe; Camarda, Ignazio; Lambdon, Philip; Médail, Frédéric; Moragues, Eva; Suehs, Carey M.; Traveset, Anna CSIC ORCID ; Troumbis, Andreas Y.; Hulme, Philip E. | Keywords: | Ailanthus altissima Biological invasions Carpobrotus spp. nvasibility Oxalis pes-caprae plant invader Species richness |
Issue Date: | 2008 | Publisher: | Blackwell Publishing | Citation: | Diversity and Distributions, 14, 839 –851 (2008) | Abstract: | Although some invasive plants are cosmopolitan, not all ecosystems are invaded to the same degree. Yet there is little experimental work on how ecosystem resistance to invasion at the establishment phase differs among ecosystems. We conducted two field sowing experiments in two consecutive years to examine establishment of the deciduous tree Ailanthus altissima, the succulent subshrub Carpobrotus spp. and the annual geophyte Oxalis pes-caprae in coastal dunes, shrublands and oldfields in more than 200 sites across six Mediterranean Basin islands differing in climatic conditions and local species richness. Establishment success (i.e. percentage of plots with at least one seedling) and rates (i.e. seedling to sown seed ratio) were low, especially for Ailanthus even when account- ing for differences in seed viability. Oxalis was capable of producing a new cohort of seedlings the year following planting. By contrast, all Ailanthus seedlings and half the Carpobrotus seedlings died following the first summer. Differences in establishment success and rates among ecosystems were species-, island- and year-dependent. Differences in precipitation and mean temperature were associated with differences in establishment rates across sites. Establishment rates tended to be positively correlated with cumulative precipitation and negatively with mean Ta. Unexpectedly, native species richness was not a good predictor of seedling establishment, except for higher Oxalis establishment success in species rich habitats. By conducting field sowing tests at multiple sites across a region we found that except for Oxalis, Mediterranean island ecosystems are quite resistant to invader establishment. These results suggest that differences in the degree of invasion between ecosystems and islands might be more dependent upon the influence of invasion event factors (e.g. propagule pressure) or factors acting at a later life-history stages rather than differences in the resistance imposed by ecosystems to invader recruitment. Moreover, our results support the notion that in Mediterranean ecosystems invasions are highly idiosyncratic events and strongly dependent on water availability conditions | Publisher version (URL): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00503.x | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/54749 | DOI: | 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00503.x |
Appears in Collections: | (EBD) Artículos |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
vilaetal08d&d.doc | 2,01 MB | Microsoft Word | View/Open |
CORE Recommender
SCOPUSTM
Citations
50
checked on Apr 22, 2024
WEB OF SCIENCETM
Citations
49
checked on Feb 24, 2024
Page view(s)
410
checked on Apr 24, 2024
Download(s)
323
checked on Apr 24, 2024
Google ScholarTM
Check
Altmetric
Altmetric
WARNING: Items in Digital.CSIC are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.