Systematics and management of natural resources: the case of Spartina species on European shores

Abstract

Discrepancies in the identification of some plants and, in consequence on their autochthonous or allochthonous character, can lead to the adoption of inappropriate habit management strategies such as conservation, control, elimination, etc. A clear illustration of this is the case of a plant with an evident expansive behaviour located on the North Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, which has been considered by some authors as Spartina versicolor, a native of the European coasts. However, other authors have identified this plant as Spartina patens, originally from the North American Atlantic coasts, but introduced on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe. This species shows an invading behaviour, playing a clear and evident role in the transformation of the habitats that it colonizes. In this work, results based on the use of sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nrDNA, widely used in taxonomy and molecular phylogeny between closely related species, is reported. These data indicate that the identity of those plants growing on the European littoral is similar to those native to the North American Atlantic coasts.

Spartina versicolor Fabre: Another case of Spartina trans-Atlantic introduction?

“…For the most resolved tree corresponding to the ITS regions, these three species belong to a well-supported clade (99 %) and are as positioned as a sister clade to S. arundincacea and S. densiflora (100 % bootstrap support). The sequences obtained from all S. versicolor (including the sequences obtained by Prieto et al 2011) and S. patens samples were identical, apart from a single substitution observed in one accession of S. patens (Cheesequake state Park, Florida) for the ndhC-trnV region. S. versicolor and S. patens are closely related to S. bakeri, presenting only two substitutions (one for the ndhC-trnV and one for the ITS regions).…”

The response of plant community diversity to alien invasion: evidence from a sand dune time series

“…1 Year of the record, converted to one of the four time steps (referred to as 1950s, 1980s, 2000s, and 2011 hereafter); 2 Cumulative species pool and level of invasion; the cumulative species pool was calculated as the total number of species, both native and alien, recorded within each vegetation type in each time step, whereas the level of invasion corresponds to the percentage of alien species compared with the cumulative species pool (Chytrý et al 2005); 3 Average number of species and mean proportion of alien and native focal species per plot; alien species were classified in accordance with Celesti-Grapow et al (2009, 2010a and Prieto et al (2011) for the genus Spartina; definitions of ''casual'', ''naturalized'', or ''invasive'' are in accordance with Rejmánek et al (2005); native focal species, that is the key species pivotal to habitat structure and function, were chosen in accordance with the ''Italian Interpretation Manual of the 92/43/EEC Directive Habitats'' (Biondi et al 2009;Prisco et al (2012); 4 Mean Shannon Diversity Index (H 0 ) and mean Evenness Index (J) per plot; the Evenness index J was calculated as H 0 /ln S, where H 0 is the Shannon diversity index and S the number of species; for calculation of H 0 (Magurran 1988), the BraunBlanquet scale values were previously transformed to percentage cover as follows: r = 0.1 %; ? = 1.0 %; 1 = 2.5 %; 2 = 15.0 %; 3 = 37.5 %; 4 = 62.5 %; 5 = 87.5 %.…”

Taxonomic synopsis of invasive and native Spartina (Poaceae, Chloridoideae) in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia, Washington and Oregon), including the first report of Spartina ×townsendii for British Columbia, Canada

“…It has been introduced to coastal regions in Spain (Campos et al 2004, SanLeón et al 1999, Prieto et al 2011), China (An et al 2007), North Africa, and the west coast of the United States (Oregon, Washington), and Canada (British Columbia).…”

“…Native to the east coast of North America and Central America, distributed along the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland and Labrador to Texas, the Atlantic coast of Mexico, and throughout the Caribbean Islands (e.g., Barkworth 2003 , Beetle 1977 , Howard et al 1989, Liogier and Martorell 2000 , Peterson 2001 ). It has been introduced to coastal regions in Spain ( Campos et al 2004 , SanLeón et al 1999 , Prieto et al 2011 ), China ( An et al 2007 ), North Africa, and the west coast of the United States (Oregon, Washington), and Canada (British Columbia).…”

“… Spartina patens grows in coastal salt marshes and brackish waters, where it usually forms dense stands above the intertidal zone and into higher and drier areas of the salt marsh ( Mobberley 1956 ). In Europe this taxon is sometimes treated as a separate species, Spartina versicolor Fabre, a traditional circumscription that some contemporary authors maintain (e.g., Sánchez Gullón 2001 ; Clayton et al 2002 onwards; see SanLeón et al 1999 and Prieto et al 2011 for summaries of this taxonomic problem). In North America Spartina patens hybridizes with Spartina pectinata in areas where they grow together, forming the hybrid taxon Spartina ×cespitosa .…”