Exotic Invasive Flora Evaluation on Different Environments and Preservation Conditions From an Area Belonging to Caatinga, Petrolina, Pe

Abstract

Biological invasions are increasingly common worldwide due to continuous transformations that environments have been undergoing. Thus, this study aimed to catalog the exotic invasive species that occur on different environments at the Agricultural Sciences Campus from the Federal University of the São Francisco Valley, Petrolina-PE and to measure the distribution of the species diversity in the evaluated environments. The study area was initially divided into six environments. By walking around (active search) through these environments, all exotic invasive species were collected and herborized. Overall, 29 species were sampled, distributed into 16 genera and 12 families. From all catalogued species, 18 were herbs, four trees, four climbing plants and three were bushes. Regarding their origin, 13 were from African continent, one from Europe, two from Asia, two from India, one from Madagascar and four from Central America. Some species still have natural occurrence at more than one continent. The ruderal environments showed greater similarity to each other, with a percentage of exotic invasive species in common, equal or greater than 75%. This study suggests that modified (degraded) environments are enabler of biological invasions.

Invasive alien plants in Sergipe, north-eastern Brazil

“…Most of the species sampled by us are r-strategists, that is, they make pioneering use of the soil, have a short germination time, high growth rates and small size (Rejmánek and Richardson 1996). These attributes seem to be very important for the success of invasive alien species, since the same has also been observed in other studies (Horowitz et al 2014;Fabricante et al 2015;Galasso et al 2018;Alves and Fabricante 2019;Silva and Fabricante 2019).…”

“…Other floristic surveys of non-native species carried out in Caatinga sites also demonstrated a predominance of herbaceous species (Fabricante et al 2015;Alves and Fabricante 2019;Silva and Fabricante 2019). In the Atlantic Forest, woody species predominated (Souza et al 2011;Mielke et al 2015;Petri et al 2018).…”

Invasão biológica em sítios de Restinga no Nordeste brasileiro

“…As famílias restantes apresentaram apenas uma espécie cada. A riqueza de plantas naturalizadas e exóticas invasoras encontrada nas áreas estudadas é preocupante, uma vez que é superior a obtida em estudos desenvolvidos em outros biomas/ecossistemas brasileiros (Quartarola et al, 2015;Fabricante et al, 2015;Silva & Fabricante, 2019;Alves & Fabricante, 2019;Araújo et al, 2021). Essa alta riqueza pode ser justificada pelas condições de conservação desse ecossistema.…”

Momordica charantia (Cucurbitaceae) como maleza introducida en Ecuador: distribución espacio-temporal y riesgo de invasión

“…In addition to being naturalized in Ecuador, M. charantia has been reported as invasive in other Neotropical countries such as Brazil (Santana Júnior et al, 2018;Alves & Fabricante, 2019;Fabricante et al, 2021), Cuba (Oviedo & González-Oliva, 2015;Pagad et al, 2022), México (Vibrans, 2009), Guyana, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Panama, and Belize (Pagad et al, 2022). The climatic conditions in the Neotropics appear to be suitable for the species' establishment.…”