TY - JOUR

T1 - Alien flora of mountains

T2 - Global comparisons for the development of local preventive measures against plant invasions

AU - McDougall, Keith L.

AU - Alexander, Jake M.

AU - Haider, Sylvia

AU - Pauchard, Aníbal

AU - Walsh, Neville G.

AU - Kueffer, Christoph

N1 - We are grateful to Trevor Edwards for providing us with rawdata from his paper on flora of the Drakensberg area in SouthAfrica (Carbutt & Edwards, 2003) and to those involved indata provision to and development of the Alaskan and south-western USA invasive plant databases. A.P. was funded byFondecyt 1040528, PFB-23-Conicyt and ICM P05-002. C.K.was supported by USDA NRI Cooperative Research, Educa-tion, and Extension Service Grant no. 2006-35320-17360. J.A.was funded by CCES through the ‘‘BioChange’’ project(0-21214-07). S.H. was funded by graduate scholarships fromUniversita ̈t Bayern e.V. and the HWP program. Our thanksalso to David Richardson and Bethany Bradley and twoanonymous referees for their constructive comments whichgreatly improved our paper

PY - 2011/1/1

Y1 - 2011/1/1

N2 - Aim We use data from 13 mountain regions and surrounding lowland areas to identify (1) the origins, traits and cultural uses of alien plant species that establish in mountains, (2) the alien species that are most likely to be a threat and (3) how managers might use this information to prevent further invasions.Location Australia, Canada, Chile, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, USA. Methods Lists of alien species were compiled for mountains and their surrounding or nearby lowlands. Principal co-ordinates analysis was performed on a matrix of similarities created using presence/absence data for alien species. The significance of differences between means for (1) similarity metrics of lowland and mountain groups and (2) species traits of lowland and mountain alien floras was determined using t-tests. In seven of the 13 mountain regions, lists of alien species undergoing management were compiled. The significance of differences between proportions of traits for species requiring and not requiring management input was determined with chi-square tests.Results We found that the proximal lowland alien flora is the main determinant of a mountain region's alien species composition. The highest similarities between mountain floras were in the Americas/Pacific Region. The majority of alien species commonly found in mountains have agricultural origins and are of little concern to land managers. Woody species and those used for ornamental purposes will often pose the greatest threat. Main conclusions Given the documented potential threat of alien species invading mountains, we advise natural resource managers to take preventive measures against the risk of alien plant invasion in mountains. A strategy for prevention should extend to the surrounding lowland areas and in particular regulate the introduction of species that are already of management concern in other mountains as well as climatically pre-adapted alien mountain plants. These may well become more problematic than the majority of alien plants currently in mountains.

AB - Aim We use data from 13 mountain regions and surrounding lowland areas to identify (1) the origins, traits and cultural uses of alien plant species that establish in mountains, (2) the alien species that are most likely to be a threat and (3) how managers might use this information to prevent further invasions.Location Australia, Canada, Chile, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, USA. Methods Lists of alien species were compiled for mountains and their surrounding or nearby lowlands. Principal co-ordinates analysis was performed on a matrix of similarities created using presence/absence data for alien species. The significance of differences between means for (1) similarity metrics of lowland and mountain groups and (2) species traits of lowland and mountain alien floras was determined using t-tests. In seven of the 13 mountain regions, lists of alien species undergoing management were compiled. The significance of differences between proportions of traits for species requiring and not requiring management input was determined with chi-square tests.Results We found that the proximal lowland alien flora is the main determinant of a mountain region's alien species composition. The highest similarities between mountain floras were in the Americas/Pacific Region. The majority of alien species commonly found in mountains have agricultural origins and are of little concern to land managers. Woody species and those used for ornamental purposes will often pose the greatest threat. Main conclusions Given the documented potential threat of alien species invading mountains, we advise natural resource managers to take preventive measures against the risk of alien plant invasion in mountains. A strategy for prevention should extend to the surrounding lowland areas and in particular regulate the introduction of species that are already of management concern in other mountains as well as climatically pre-adapted alien mountain plants. These may well become more problematic than the majority of alien plants currently in mountains.

KW - Biology

KW - Altitude

KW - biological invasions

KW - invasion pathway

KW - land use history

KW - mountain ecosystems

KW - non-native plant invasio

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78649983199&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/5a2d3cb4-3bff-30e1-baca-9fff612cf391/

U2 - 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00713.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00713.x

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:78649983199

VL - 17

SP - 103

EP - 111

JO - Diversity and Distributions

JF - Diversity and Distributions

SN - 1366-9516

IS - 1

ER -