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Annual monitoring reveals rapid upward movement of exotic plants in a montane ecosystem

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Abstract

There is increasing evidence that invasive species are threating montane ecosystems globally. However, trends in species distribution are difficult to observe directly due to a lack of data with suitable spatio-temporal resolution. Here, we aimed to detect spatio-temporal trends in exotic plants in a montane ecosystem, and to determine which drivers had a role affecting these trends. Each year, for a period of 7 years, we recorded the upper elevational range limit of exotic plant species in road verges along an elevational gradient of 1500–2874 m a.s.l. in southern Africa. We fitted repeated-measures ANOVA models to test if upper elevational range limits changed over time. Generalized least squares models showed that exotic richness of annuals increased by 3.9 species per year. Also, the upper elevational range limits of established exotics ascended by 24.5 m/year for annuals (N = 17 species), and by 9.7 m/year for perennials (N = 26). These upward trends were too rapid to be explained by slow-acting drivers such as climatic change or time since species introduction. The rates of increase indicate that many exotics were not yet in equilibrium with the environment and, therefore, had not been in the region long enough to have filled their potential niches. Exotic species could reach much higher elevations than expected, indicating that current prediction models are likely an underestimation of potential distributional ranges. The spatial clustering of upper elevational range limits around potential points of introduction indicates ongoing human-mediated propagule pressure as the major cause of rapid exotic range expansion, especially along roads and near dwellings. Montane road verges are regularly disturbed by erosion and maintenance, creating unoccupied habitats, while traffic in the form of vehicles and tourists facilitates the introduction of new species. This suggests that easily accessible montane ecosystems are much more susceptible to invasions than previously assumed, due to a combination of anthropogenic disturbance and ongoing propagule pressure.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence FIBIR), the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, and the University of Pretoria (UP). JMK was supported by the long-term research development Project No. RVO 67985939 (The Czech Academy of Sciences). We are indebted to many UP students for field assistance, to the South African National Biodiversity Institute for providing specimen data extracts from the digitized herbarium database PRECIS, to P. N. Msomi (South African Police Services) for traffic data, to Tom Bishop for preparing the temperature data, to the Mazda Wildlife Fund for logistic support, and to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Ecosystem Research - Geobotany, Kiel University, 24118, Kiel, Germany

    Jesse M. Kalwij

  2. Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa

    Jesse M. Kalwij & Berndt J. van Rensburg

  3. Department of Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, 602 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Jesse M. Kalwij

  4. Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa

    Mark P. Robertson

  5. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Berndt J. van Rensburg

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  1. Jesse M. Kalwij
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Correspondence to Jesse M. Kalwij.

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Kalwij, J.M., Robertson, M.P. & van Rensburg, B.J. Annual monitoring reveals rapid upward movement of exotic plants in a montane ecosystem. Biol Invasions 17, 3517–3529 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-015-0975-3

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