Using multiple traits to assess the potential of introduced and native vines to proliferate in a tropical region

Abstract

Predicting the invasive potential of introduced species remains an ongoing challenge due to the multiple interacting regional and global processes that facilitate the introduction and proliferation of alien species. This may be particularly true in regions where native species are increasingly reported as expanding and impacting ecosystems in ways indistinguishable from alien ones. Current approaches to assess the invasive potential of plants may be limited by the choice of traits used and the exclusion of native species. To overcome these limitations, we develop a novel approach that focuses on all species—native and alien—within a functional group of plants to predict their proliferation status. Our approach relied on the development of an extensive database of extrinsic and intrinsic traits for Puerto Rican vines with the goal of generating a predictive model of vine proliferation status. We test three hypotheses linking origin, extrinsic and intrinsic traits, and proliferation status. We found that the origin of proliferating vines was associated with only one out of seven traits, namely plant use. We also found that proliferation status was associated with all but two traits, namely life span and climbing mechanism. Finally, a classification tree analysis identified five variables as good predictors of proliferation status and used them to split the species into six groups characterized by a unique suite of traits, three of them included proliferating species. The development of tools to identify potential proliferating species is critical for management and conservation purposes. Tools that can minimize biases and make predictions based on trait data easily obtainable are particularly needed in regions with a high taxonomic and functional diversity, and with limited ecological knowledge of individual species. In addition, these tools should be capable of incorporating native species since an increasing number of native species are behaving like invasive aliens.

Dry conditions and disturbance promote liana seedling survival and abundance

“…An increasing number of studies have shown that tropical forests are experiencing remarkable changes in structure and dynamics (Phillips and Gentry 1994, Condit 1998, Allen et al 2010, Enquist and Enquist 2011, which includes an outstanding proliferation of lianas in the Neotropics (Phillips et al 2002, Schnitzer and Bongers 2011, Delgado et al 2016, Hogan et al 2017. Determining whether these changes are also present in earlier ontogenetic stages and linked to abiotic and biotic factors is a central goal in ecology and conservation biology.…”

Multi-driver and multi-scale assessment of vine community structure and composition across a complex tropical environmental matrix

“…In these post-agricultural landscapes native and non-native vines blanket crops, second-growth vegetation, and forest edges ([42, 44], e.g., [66]). The intentional introduction of non-native vines, repeated sowing of vine seeds, and soil disturbance [47] could have favored the spread of a small group of vines in areas that were formerly devoted to agriculture. Thus vector-vine interactions may explain discrepancies between our observations and those made by others.…”

“…In Puerto Rico vines form compact communities—hereafter vine patches–that cover ~3% (49.5 km 2 ) of our study area [44]. The increasing proliferation of vines most likely is the result of the decline of an otherwise thriving agricultural economy [46] and the repeated introduction of numerous alien vine species with agricultural value [47].…”