European anthropogenic, semi-natural and natural habitats as sources of naturalized plant species worldwide
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Large-scale patterns of plant invasion and their determinants in different habitat types are receiving increasing attention. This research has mainly focused on invasion in habitats in recipient areas, but recently also the importance of habitat types from which alien species originated in the source areas is recognised as a factor controlling observed patterns. We explored European anthropogenic, semi-natural and natural habitats as sources of plants that became naturalised in other parts of the World. Our dataset encompassed 10,741 vascular plant species assigned to 37 habitat types classified into habitat groups reflecting the intensity of human impact, based on European vegetation classification system (Mucina et al. submitted). Within each habitat type and habitat group, species naturalised outside Europe were identified using the GloNAF database (van Kleunen et al. 2015). European habitat types, providing the highest proportion of naturalized species, included anthropogenic weed and perennial ruderal vegetation, semi-natural to natural grasslands and wetlands, riparian forests, and eutrophic forests, and species from these habitats were also most successful in terms of the number of GloNAF regions occupied. The European species with the widest naturalization range, as measured by the sum of regions in which they naturalized, originated in anthropogenic weed vegetation. Successful were also species occurring in both semi-natural grasslands and weed vegetation. Among species of natural habitat types, generalists able to occur in anthropogenic as well as in semi-natural habitat types have naturalised most frequently. |
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