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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Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap
2014
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Online Access: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-87879 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 |
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ftumeauniv:oai:DiVA.org:umu-87879 2023-10-09T21:56:09+02:00 Alien Roadside Species More Easily Invade Alpine than Lowland Plant Communities in a Subarctic Mountain Ecosystem Lembrechts, Jonas J. Milbau, Ann Nijs, Ivan 2014 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-87879 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 eng eng Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap San Francisco : Public Library of Science PLOS ONE, 2014, 9:2, s. e89664- http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-87879 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 ISI:000332389000073 Scopus 2-s2.0-84896280822 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Biological Sciences Biologiska vetenskaper Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap Article in journal info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2014 ftumeauniv https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 2023-09-22T13:57:58Z 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 Umeå University: Publications (DiVA) PLoS ONE 9 2 e89664 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Umeå University: Publications (DiVA) |
op_collection_id |
ftumeauniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Biological Sciences Biologiska vetenskaper Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap |
spellingShingle |
Biological Sciences Biologiska vetenskaper Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap Lembrechts, Jonas J. Milbau, Ann Nijs, Ivan Alien Roadside Species More Easily Invade Alpine than Lowland Plant Communities in a Subarctic Mountain Ecosystem |
topic_facet |
Biological Sciences Biologiska vetenskaper Earth and Related Environmental Sciences Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap |
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 |
Lembrechts, Jonas J. Milbau, Ann Nijs, Ivan |
author_facet |
Lembrechts, Jonas J. Milbau, Ann Nijs, Ivan |
author_sort |
Lembrechts, Jonas J. |
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 |
Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-87879 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 |
genre |
Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Subarctic |
op_relation |
PLOS ONE, 2014, 9:2, s. e89664- http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-87879 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 ISI:000332389000073 Scopus 2-s2.0-84896280822 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089664 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
9 |
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2 |
container_start_page |
e89664 |
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