The invasion of abandoned fields by a major alien tree filters understory plant traits in novel forest ecosystems

Sitzia, Tommaso; Campagnaro, Thomas; Kotze, David Johannes; Nardi, Serenella; Ertani, Andrea

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26493-3

Cited by 32 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Our findings seem to contradict the idea that invasive plants increase soil fertility in invaded sites [19,20,23,34]. On one hand, such pattern can be partially explained by an increased consumption effect resulting from the addition of S. gigantea plants in our artificially invaded communities.…”

Section: Direct and Indirect Effects Of Functional Diversity And S Gcontrasting

confidence: 98%

“…However, if considered in the long term, effects of this invasive species on native plants emergence rates and biomass production can reduce diversity of invaded communities by competitive exclusion of native species, thus deteriorating biotic resistance of such communities and, possibly, creating opportunities for further invasions [18,19,23]. Furthermore, a recent study found an invasive plant to strongly affect the functional composition of native communities during early stages of development [34].…”

Section: Effects On Plant Emergence and Aboveground Biomassmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functional Diversity and Invasive Species Influence Soil Fertility in Experimental Grasslands

Teixeira

Yannelli

Ganade

et al. 2020

Plants

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Ecosystem properties can be positively affected by plant functional diversity and compromised by invasive alien plants. We performed a community assembly study in mesocosms manipulating different functional diversity levels for native grassland plants (communities composed by 1, 2 or 3 functional groups) to test if functional dispersion could constrain the impacts of an invasive alien plant (Solidago gigantea) on soil fertility and plant community biomass via complementarity. Response variables were soil nutrients, soil water nutrients and aboveground biomass. We applied linear mixed-effects models to assess the effects of functional diversity and S. gigantea on plant biomass, soil and soil water nutrients. A structural equation model was used to evaluate if functional diversity and invasive plants affect soil fertility directly or indirectly via plant biomass and soil pH. Invaded communities had greater total biomass but less native plant biomass than uninvaded ones. While functional diversity increased nutrient availability in the soil solution of uninvaded communities, invasive plants reduced nutrient concentration in invaded soils. Functional diversity indirectly affected soil water but not soil nutrients via plant biomass, whereas the invader reduced native plant biomass and disrupted the effects of diversity on nutrients. Moreover, invasive plants reduced soil pH and compromised phosphate uptake by plants, which can contribute to higher phosphate availability and its possible accumulation in invaded soils. We found little evidence for functional diversity to constrain invasion impacts on nutrients and plant biomass. Restoration of such systems should consider other plant community features than plant trait diversity to reduce establishment of invasive plants.

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Section: Direct and Indirect Effects Of Functional Diversity And S Gcontrasting

confidence: 98%

Section: Effects On Plant Emergence and Aboveground Biomassmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Diversity and Invasive Species Influence Soil Fertility in Experimental Grasslands

Teixeira

Yannelli

Ganade

et al. 2020

Plants

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“…In contrast to numerous studies that assessed impacts of alien tree species on vascular plants, studies focused on bryophytes are scarce and lead to ambiguous conclusions (e.g. Taylor et al 2016;Sitzia et al 2018;Slabejová et al 2019). Moreover, most of them were focused on epiphytes, indicating, for example, high species richness of bryophytes on the bark of Robinia pseudoacacia (Jagodziński et al 2018;Fudali and Szymanowski 2019) or Q. rubra (Woziwoda et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of alien tree species on the abundance and diversity of terricolous bryophytes

Dyderski

Jagodziński

2020

Folia Geobot

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Bryophytes comprise an important element of temperate forest biodiversity and functioning. Although numerous studies reported impacts of alien tree species on understorey vegetation, few focused on impacts on bryophytes. Here we checked whether three invasive tree species in Europe (Prunus serotina Ehrh., Quercus rubra L. and Robinia pseudoacacia L.) influence terricolous bryophyte communities, alpha and beta diversity, and cover. We used a set of 186 study plots in western Poland with data on the cover of bryophytes species, as well as light availability, soil C:N ratio and pH. We found that light availability was the main driver of bryophyte species richness, cover and composition. Poor Pinus sylvestris L. forests invaded by P. serotina hosted more species and higher species richness than non-invaded P. sylvestris forests, while forests invaded by Q. rubra and R. pseudoacacia hosted fewer species than native forest types. Low differences among forest types studied resulted from small pools of species and the presence of generalist species. Fagus sylvatica L. forest, Q. rubra and R. pseudoacacia forests hosted the smallest number of species, while the most species rich stands were poor P. sylvestris forest invaded by P. serotina and non-invaded P. sylvestris forests. We concluded that light limitation by invasive species might be more important than dominant tree species identity in limiting terricolous bryophyte species richness and abundance. This requires further studies, accounting for varied abundances of invasive tree species. Therefore, the conservation of sites with high terricolous bryophyte biodiversity needs to be focused on canopy cover.

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“…species that shape habitats and/or cause changes to their state and resources availability (Vitousek 1986;Schmitz et al 1997;Jones et al 1997;Crooks 2002;Başnou 2009;Başnou and Vilá 2009;Djurdjevic et al 2011;Benesperi et al 2012;Cierjacks et al 2013;Vítková et al 2017;Lazzaro et al 2018). The replacement of native species by alien plants, even when apparently ecologically equivalent, almost always negatively affects the ecosystems, especially if those species act as "ecosystem engineers" (Brown et al 2006;Wilson and Ricciardi 2009;Lazzaro et al 2018;Sitzia et al 2018;Uboni et al 2019).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A first checklist of the alien-dominated vegetation in Italy

Viciani¹,

Vidali²,

Gigante³

et al. 2020

Plant Sociology

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This study provides a first step toward the knowledge of the alien-dominated and co-dominated plant communities present in Italy. The first ever checklist of the alien phytocoenoses described or reported in literature for the Italian territory has been compiled, produced by data-mining in national and local thematic literature. The resulting vegetation-type draft-list has been checked in the light of the most recent syntaxonomic documentation and updated with regards to syntaxonomy and nomenclature, with special reference to the frame proposed in the Italian Vegetation Prodrome. The list includes 27 vascular and one bryophyte vegetation classes, hosting 194 low rank alien-dominated syntaxa. The different vegetation types detected for each syntaxonomic class and macro-vegetation group, defined by physiognomical and ecological attributes, are discussed.

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The invasion of abandoned fields by a major alien tree filters understory plant traits in novel forest ecosystems

Cited by 32 publications

References 62 publications

Functional Diversity and Invasive Species Influence Soil Fertility in Experimental Grasslands

Functional Diversity and Invasive Species Influence Soil Fertility in Experimental Grasslands

Impacts of alien tree species on the abundance and diversity of terricolous bryophytes

A first checklist of the alien-dominated vegetation in Italy

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