Invasive plants pick disturbed ground, not the calendar
Wang S, Li M, Guo Y, Li J, Wang R
Invasive Species
The weedy patch along your local road or vacant lot isn't random: disturbed, high-traffic spots are exactly where invasive plants thrive and spread from, so that's where pulling them does the most good.
Researchers studied weeds and invasive plants across six types of habitat on an urbanizing island in South China, from parks to roadsides to wetlands. They found that where a plant grows (how disturbed or paved-over the spot is) matters far more than what season it is. Invasive species also turned out to be generalists, able to grow in a much wider variety of places than native plants, which helps explain why they spread so successfully.
Key Findings
Habitat type and disturbance intensity explained 58.9% of invasive plant community composition, while season alone explained only 1.2% and was not statistically significant.
A significant habitat-by-season interaction showed seasonal effects on invasive plants only in certain habitats, with declines from spring to summer seen in forest edge, park, and wetland sites.
Invasive species had significantly broader habitat occupancy than natives (Shannon index 3.00 vs. 2.45, p=0.024) and showed greater co-occurrence with each other, consistent with a shared generalist, disturbance-tolerant strategy.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Invasive plants on a fast-growing Chinese island cluster heavily around roadsides and wastelands, driven more by habitat disturbance than by season, and they tolerate a far wider range of conditions than native species.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Habitat Type and Disturbance Intensity Are Associated With Invasive Plant Community Structure Across an Urbanizing Subtropical Island.
Urbanization promotes biological invasions, yet the relative importance of spatial versus temporal dynamics in subtropical urban ecosystems remains unclear. We investigated invasive plant communiti...
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