Abstract Expanding visitation to Polar regions

• Main Authors: Chris Ware, Dana M. Bergstrom, Inger Greve Alsos
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Arctic; Svalbard; Arctic Archipelago; Climate change
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.453.7010; http://uit.no/Content/261171/%EE%80%80Ware%EE%80%81 et al 2011_Biological Invasions.pdf

combined with climate warming increases the potential for alien species introduction and establish-ment. We quantified vascular plant propagule pres-sure associated with different groups of travelers to the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, and evalu-ated the potential of introduced seeds to germinate under the most favorable average Svalbard soil temperature (10C). We sampled the footwear of 259 travelers arriving by air to Svalbard during the summer of 2008, recording 1,019 seeds: a mean of 3.9 (±0.8) seeds per traveler. Assuming the seed influx is representative for the whole year, we estimate a yearly seed load of around 270,000 by this vector alone. Seeds of 53 species were identified from 17 families, with Poaceae having both highest diversity and number of seeds. Eight of the families identified are among those most invasive worldwide, while the majority of the species identified were non-native to Svalbard. The number of seeds was highest on footwear that had been used in forested and alpine areas in the 3 months prior to traveling to Svalbard, and increased with the amount of soil affixed to footwear. In total, 26 % of the collected seeds germinated under simulated Svalbard conditions. Our results demonstrate high propagule transport through aviation to highly visited cold-climate regions and isolated islands is occurring. Alien species establishment is expected to increase with climate change, particularly in high latitude regions, making the need for regional management consider-ations a priority.