Impact of two invasive succulents on native-plant recruitment in Neotropical arid environments: facilitation or inhibition?
- Authors
- Herrera, Ileana
- Format
- Article
- Status
- publishedVersion
- Description
Kalanchoe daigremontiana and Stapelia gigantea are two succulent invasive species with potential impactson recruitment of native vegetation in a protected area of importance for conservation of arid envi-ronments in northern South America. We hypothesized that while K. daigremontiana has the potential forinhibiting recruitment of native plants through allelopathic effects, S. gigantea could facilitate recruit-ment of nurse-dependent native taxa. To explore these contrasting impacts, we designed a comparativestudy and a transplant experiment. Density of native seedlings and species richness were signi ? cantlylower in patches invaded by K. daigremontiana when compared to patches with native vegetation orinvaded by S. gigantea , suggesting that native-seedling recruitment is negatively affected by K. daigremontiana and not affected or facilitated by S. gigantea . The experiment did not generate resultsconcordant with those obtained in the comparative study. Seedlings' recruitment of two selected nativespecies was facilitated by presence of nurse-plants (exotics and natives); however, the magnitude of thiseffect varied according to the type of nurse-plant, susceptibility to herbivory, and herbivory level. Weidentify K. daigremontiana as the invasive with top need for management actions, because it has thepotential to alter composition and physiognomy of native-plant communities in tropical aridenvironments
http://www.academia.edu/25086013/Impact_of_two_invasive_succulents_on_native-seedling_recruitment_in_Neotropical_arid_environments
- Publication Year
- 2016
- Language
- eng
- Topic
- COMPARATIVE
STUDY
EXOTIC
SUCCULENT
- Repository
- Repositorio SENESCYT
- Rights
- openAccess
- License
- closedAccess