Are Non-native Plant Species a Threat to the Alps? Insights and Perspectives

Siniscalco, Consolata; Barni, Elena

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-67967-9_5

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The disturbance regime is very important in this type of environment (Hopper et al 2021), especially because local plant communities grow slowly (Dayrell et al 2018) and may be outcompeted by invasive species. Our results suggest that invasions in more stressful conditions might also be affected by the invader's capacity to mimic functional traits of the native community, as predicted by the join-the-local hypothesis, and supported by recent studies (Siniscalco & Barni 2017;El-Barougy et al 2020). This could, however, be highly species-dependent, as the studied invasive Poaceae species M. repens appeared to rather match the "try-harder" hypothesis.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 83%

“…On the other hand, traits are expected to converge between invasive and native species as a result of to environmental filtering according to the "join-the-locals" hypothesis (Tecco et al 2010). There is now mixed support for both hypotheses (Tecco et al 2010;Dainese & Bragazza 2012;De Paula et al 2015), which probably reflects the idea that they represent two ends of an ecological continuum (Siniscalco & Barni 2017;El-Barougy et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient

et al. 2021

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One hypothesized invasion strategy ("try-harder") predicts that invaders exhibit functional traits that are better adjusted to the environment than native species. Alternatively, the "join-the-locals" hypothesis predicts trait convergence between invasive and native species due to environmental filtering with increasing resource limitation. We hypothesized that invasions strategies shift from "try-harder" to "join-the-locals" with increasing elevation. We used an elevational gradient to detect possible trait convergences between alien invaders and native plant species in Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae. We found a significant trait convergence with elevation only in Asteraceae, suggesting a species-specific pattern, but also an important phenotypic variability of the alien invader. This supports the idea that the more resource-limited the environment, the more it filters out traits substantially diverging from the locally-adapted native community, thereby entailing a shift from "try-harder" to "join-the-locals" strategies. The invasive grass was also more acquisitive but did not exhibit any relation to the native community, supporting the "try-harder" hypothesis. The size of the invasive Fabaceae species decreased with elevation, mirroring the native Fabaceae species, but not the overall native community. Including more replicates and a thorough quantification of environmental conditions, offers a promising avenue for improving the understanding the seemingly idiosyncrasies of invasion pathways.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting functional responses of non-native invasive species along a tropical elevation gradient

et al. 2021

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“…According to Mincheva et al [35], Japanese knotweed has been well distributed in grasslands in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy during the last 30 years. Populations have also been observed in the western Italian Alps [36]. In Slovenia, this species is also widespread in urban areas, along watercourses, riparian corridors, roadsides, and railroad lines [31].…”

Section: Spread Of the Selected Alien Plant Species In The Adriatic-i...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Italy, populations of giant hogweed have been classified as naturalized in some areas and invasive in others [17]. According to maps provided by Jahodová et al [45], this species also occurs in the northeastern part of the country, while Siniscalco and Barni [36] reported infestations in mountainous areas in the Aosta Valley and Alpine Botanical Gardens.…”

Section: Spread Of the Selected Alien Plant Species In The Adriatic-i...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Invasive Alien Plant Species—Raising Awareness of a Threat to Biodiversity and Ecological Connectivity (EC) in the Adriatic-Ionian Region

et al. 2022

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Improving ecological connectivity (EC) within landscapes by establishing corridors and ecological networks has been proposed to counteract the negative effects of habitat fragmentation and climate change on biodiversity. To be functional, ecological networks should be kept free of opportunistic invasive species that can disrupt EC between protected areas and cause biodiversity loss. The present study focused on perennial herbaceous species whose occurrence in the Adriatic-Ionian region has increased in the last two decades, namely common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), Bohemian knotweed (Reynoutria × bohemica), giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum), giant goldenrod (Solidago gigantea), Canadian goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), and Bermuda buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae). All species have a high potential to spread in grasslands, abandoned agricultural fields, forest edges, and riparian areas and pose a significant threat to native plant communities and biodiversity. Restoring heavily infested sites is a major challenge because these perennial invaders are very persistent and tend to alter the soil environment in invaded habitats and prevent the recolonization of native plant communities. Therefore, early action should be taken to prevent the spread of these environmental weeds in ecological networks and protected areas with high conservation value.

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