dc.contributor.author | Castro-Diez, P. | |
dc.contributor.author | Godoy, O. | |
dc.contributor.author | Saldana, A. | |
dc.contributor.author | Richardson, D.M. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2011-12-12T08:10:48Z | |
dc.date.available | 2011-12-12T08:10:48Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2011 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Castro-Diez, P.; Godoy, O.; Saldana, A. and Richardson, D.M. (2011) Predicting invasiveness of Australian acacias on the basis of their native climatic affinities, life history traits and human use. Diversity and Distributions, 17, 934-945 | en |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1045 | |
dc.description.abstract | Aim Many Australian Acacia species have been widely planted around the world. Some taxa are among the most aggressive of invasive alien plants and cause severe ecosystem degradation. We aimed to predict invasiveness of taxa in a large set of
Australian Acacia species on the basis of easy-to-assess predictors.
Location Global.
Methods We considered three groups of predictors: (1) climatic affinities of
species in their native ranges; (2) life history traits; and (3) human usage factors.
Logistic multiple regressions were applied to construct predictive models for 85
Australian acacias (species in Acacia subgenus Phyllodineae) that are known to
have been transported outside of their native range (17 known to be invasive and
68 non-invasive). The best model was then applied to predict the probability of an
additional 34 Acacia species with unknown invasive status.
Results Water availability in the native range and human uses were significant
predictors of invasiveness in all models. Life history index (proportional to plant
height, leaf area and seed mass) and climatic amplitude were also positive predictors of invasiveness when human use was not considered. The best model, based on human uses and water availability, correctly classified 92% of the species. Results suggest that Acacia species that evolved under low climatic stress have agreater chance of becoming invasive.
Main conclusions Species that are useful to humans are more likely to be disseminated to and within new regions, thus increasing the risk of invasion. Combining ecological, evolutionary and human-use criteria is useful for quantifying the risk of Australian acacias becoming invasive. Acacia species can attain invasive status by virtue of intrinsic traits and/or through increased use by humans. Therefore, we predict that the invasion risk of species coming from
native areas with high water availability will rise sharply if the interest in
exploiting these species increases. | en |
dc.description.sponsorship | Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology | en |
dc.format.extent | 263155 bytes | |
dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
dc.language.iso | en | en |
dc.publisher | Blackwell Publishing Ltd | en |
dc.subject | Biological invasions | en |
dc.subject | climatic amplitude | en |
dc.subject | invasive species | en |
dc.subject | life-history traits | en |
dc.subject | native range | en |
dc.subject | predictive models | en |
dc.subject | risk assessment | en |
dc.title | Predicting invasiveness of Australian acacias on the basis of their native climatic affinities, life history traits and human use | en |
dc.type | JournalArticles | en |
dc.cibjournal | Diversity and Distributions | en |
dc.cibproject | NA | en |