The Role of Abiotic Soil Parameters as a Factor in the Success of Invasive Plant Species

Abstract

Plant species dispersal has been strongly enhanced by human activities. Introduced species have to cope with indigenous species and local conditions. They may avoid indigenous species by occupying new (abiotic) territory. Once a species is established it may become a pest, and may seriously threaten other species and ecosystems.In this paper we focus on invasive plant species of the Dutch flora. We make two comparisons: (1) Dutch neophytes (i.e. arrived in The Netherlands after 1825) vs. indigenous Dutch flora; and (2) species of the Dutch flora that have become invasive outside Europe vs. non-invasive species of the Dutch flora. We hypothesize that at least part of the success of the invasive or neophyte species is due to their ability to grow under a wider range of abiotic soil circumstances than other species. We regard an invasive species as successful if it is able to disperse from the introduction site(s) and remain present in the invaded vegetation.For ten out of the sixteen abiotic factors there is a wider range for the neophytes: chlorine, potassium, mean highest and lowest groundwater level, phosphorus (and total content) and pH H2O.We hypothesized that part of the success of invasive species may be the adaptation to a variety of abiotic soil parameters. This is indeed the case for a number of the examined parameters, mostly related to nutrient availability and soil pH. This indicates that the success of invasive species is at least partly caused by their ability to grow under a wide range of nutrient availability and soil pH. Their success may therefore be stimulated by the increasing pollution of natural areas by excessive nitrogen.

Rare plant species occurrence patterns are associated not with soil properties, but with frequent fire in a southeast Australian dry sclerophyll forest

“…Common species also had no associations with any of the soil variables examined. This finding was surprising, as other studies have reported that common species may tolerate a broader range of environmental circumstances than rare species (Rabinowitz et al., 1979; Wamelink et al., 2014, 2018), such as greater ability to occupy habitats across various abiotic soil conditions (Wamelink et al., 2014). The absence of associations between species with soil properties may be attributed to the nutrient acquisition strategies of Australian native plants in our study system.…”

The Netherlands may lose up to 40% of its plant species due to climate change

“…Plots that were georeferenced and below an altitude of 500 m were linked to an AAT (based on the year the plot was recorded and the four previous years). The AAT for each plot was linked with the species present at that location, which facilitated the estimation of an AAT response curve for each species using a Spline 22,23,28 . We de ned the range of the occurrence of each species as the annual temperature between the 5th and 95th percentiles of the response of the species.…”

“…The method used here follows that of Wamelink et al 22,23 , but with soil pH changed to AAT in the model. We combined two European databases to link the AAT with the vegetation plots and the species present.…”

Results of Experimental Research on Computerized Intellectual Monitoring Means of Effective Greenhouse Illumination

“…The main approaches to the development and design of modern systems of local and remote monitoring of parameters of agricultural and technical facilities by means of modern sensor and microprocessor technologies using current research methods are presented in (Vu, 2011;Ahn et al, 2017;Changizian et al, 2017;Pash et al, 2017;Shirsath et al, 2017;Zade et al, 2017;Drapaca, 2018). For example, modern approaches to biological object modeling, such as mathematical modeling of engineering systems, in view of various destabilizing effects are presented in the paper (Drapaca, 2018); the main approaches to the environmental factors which are distributed in space and time, and affect the quality of technical systems are presented in the paper (Pash et al, 2017); the study (Changizian et al, 2017) focuses on the results of research on ensuring effective control of photoelectric signals in technical objects.…”

“…Currently, a wide range of scientific and technical research is devoted to the development of computerized technologies for the study of production processes in the agricultural segment of the national economies (Polat, 2017;Wamelink et al, 2018). The relevance of the research in this subject area is due to the high rates of research intensity of modern protected horticulture.…”