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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Autores principales:	Jonas J Lembrechts, Ann Milbau, Ivan Nijs
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f1
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f12021-11-18T08:30:53ZAlien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0089664https://doaj.org/article/977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f12014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24586947/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Effects 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.Jonas J LembrechtsAnn MilbauIvan NijsPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 2, p e89664 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	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.
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
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://doaj.org/article/977c630097d74190b8229c96c9c204f1
work_keys_str_mv	AT jonasjlembrechts alienroadsidespeciesmoreeasilyinvadealpinethanlowlandplantcommunitiesinasubarcticmountainecosystem AT annmilbau alienroadsidespeciesmoreeasilyinvadealpinethanlowlandplantcommunitiesinasubarcticmountainecosystem AT ivannijs alienroadsidespeciesmoreeasilyinvadealpinethanlowlandplantcommunitiesinasubarcticmountainecosystem
_version_	1718421698448982016

Alien roadside species more easily invade alpine than lowland plant communities in a subarctic mountain ecosystem.

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