Alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem.
Effects of roads on plant communities are not well known in cold-climate mountain ecosystems, where road building and development are expected to increase in future decades. Knowledge of the sensitivity of mountain plant communities to disturbance by roads is however important for future conservatio...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 https://doaj.org/article/977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f1 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f1 2023-05-15T18:28:08+02:00 Alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. Jonas J Lembrechts Ann Milbau Ivan Nijs 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 https://doaj.org/article/977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f1 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24586947/pdf/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 https://doaj.org/article/977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f1 PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 2, p e89664 (2014) Medicine R Science Q article 2014 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 2022-12-31T07:25:48Z Effects of roads on plant communities are not well known in cold-climate mountain ecosystems, where road building and development are expected to increase in future decades. Knowledge of the sensitivity of mountain plant communities to disturbance by roads is however important for future conservation purposes. We investigate the effects of roads on species richness and composition, including the plant strategies that are most affected, along three elevational gradients in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. We also examine whether mountain roads promote the introduction and invasion of alien plant species from the lowlands to the alpine zone. Observations of plant community composition were made together with abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic factors in 60 T-shaped transects. Alpine plant communities reacted differently to road disturbances than their lowland counterparts. On high elevations, the roadside species composition was more similar to that of the local natural communities. Less competitive and ruderal species were present at high compared with lower elevation roadsides. While the effects of roads thus seem to be mitigated in the alpine environment for plant species in general, mountain plant communities are more invasible than lowland communities. More precisely, relatively more alien species present in the roadside were found to invade into the surrounding natural community at high compared to low elevations. We conclude that effects of roads and introduction of alien species in lowlands cannot simply be extrapolated to the alpine and subarctic environment. Article in Journal/Newspaper Subarctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PLoS ONE 9 2 e89664 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
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Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Jonas J Lembrechts Ann Milbau Ivan Nijs Alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Effects of roads on plant communities are not well known in cold-climate mountain ecosystems, where road building and development are expected to increase in future decades. Knowledge of the sensitivity of mountain plant communities to disturbance by roads is however important for future conservation purposes. We investigate the effects of roads on species richness and composition, including the plant strategies that are most affected, along three elevational gradients in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. We also examine whether mountain roads promote the introduction and invasion of alien plant species from the lowlands to the alpine zone. Observations of plant community composition were made together with abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic factors in 60 T-shaped transects. Alpine plant communities reacted differently to road disturbances than their lowland counterparts. On high elevations, the roadside species composition was more similar to that of the local natural communities. Less competitive and ruderal species were present at high compared with lower elevation roadsides. While the effects of roads thus seem to be mitigated in the alpine environment for plant species in general, mountain plant communities are more invasible than lowland communities. More precisely, relatively more alien species present in the roadside were found to invade into the surrounding natural community at high compared to low elevations. We conclude that effects of roads and introduction of alien species in lowlands cannot simply be extrapolated to the alpine and subarctic environment. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jonas J Lembrechts Ann Milbau Ivan Nijs |
author_facet |
Jonas J Lembrechts Ann Milbau Ivan Nijs |
author_sort |
Jonas J Lembrechts |
title |
Alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. |
title_short |
Alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. |
title_full |
Alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. |
title_fullStr |
Alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. |
title_sort |
alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 https://doaj.org/article/977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f1 |
genre |
Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Subarctic |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 2, p e89664 (2014) |
op_relation |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24586947/pdf/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 https://doaj.org/article/977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 |
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PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
e89664 |
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