Characteristics of the naturalized flora of Southern Africa largely reflect the non-random introduction of alien species for cultivation

0554250 - BÚ 2022 RIV DK eng J - Journal Article
Omer, A. - Fristoe, T. S. - Yang, Q. - Maurel, N. - Weigelt, P. - Kreft, H. - Bleilevels, J. - Dawson, W. - Essl, F. - Pergl, Jan - Pyšek, Petr - van Kleunen, M.
Characteristics of the naturalized flora of Southern Africa largely reflect the non-random introduction of alien species for cultivation.
Ecography. Roč. 44, č. 12 (2021), s. 1812-1825. ISSN 0906-7590. E-ISSN 1600-0587
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GX19-28807X
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : plant invasion * introduction biases * Africa
OECD category: Ecology
Impact factor: 6.802, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Open access
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05669

Alien flora cultivated in Southern Africa represents a non-random subset of the global flora and this bias at the introduction stage largely contributes to patterns in geographic origin, phylogenetic composition and traits of the natural¬ized flora. The strong phylogenetic clustering of the naturalized cultivated flora is also, to a large extent, driven by introduction bias. Although functional traits explained little variation in naturalization success of cultivated plants, naturalization success was more likely for plants with intermediate seed mass and height and high specific leaf area. Thus, despite strong biases in which species have been introduced to Southern Africa, there are significant patterns in the species characteristics related to naturalization probability. Our quantification of introduction biases demonstrates that they are huge, and that accounting for it is important to avoid over- or under-emphasizing the characteristics of successfully naturalized alien plants.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0328926