Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
J Environ Manage. 2014 Oct 1;143:173-85. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.04.006. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
Vegetation communities along recreational tracks may suffer from substantial edge-effects through the impacts of trampling, modified environmental conditions and competition with species that benefit from disturbance. We assessed impacts on trackside vegetation by comparing high and low usage tourism sites at a 1-10 m distance from recreational tracks in a popular arid-lands tourism destination in South Australia. The central aim was quantification of the strengths and spatial extent of tourism impacts along recreational tracks with a qualitative comparison of roads and trails. Track-distance gradients were most prevalent at high usage sites. There, species community composition was altered, total plant cover decreased, non-native species cover increased, plant diversity increased or decreased (depending on the distance) and soil compaction increased towards recreational tracks. Roadside effects were greater and more pervasive than trailside effects. Further, plant diversity did not continuously increase towards the road verge as it did along trails but dropped sharply in the immediate road shoulder which indicated high disturbance conditions that few species were able to tolerate. To our knowledge, we are the first to demonstrate that the access mode to a recreation site influences the potential of certain impacts, such as the increase of non-native species, to self-perpetuate from their points of introduction to disjointed sites with a predisposition to disturbance. Due to this propulsion of impacts, the overall spatial extent of roadside impacts was far greater than initially apparent from assessments at the road verge. We discuss possible means of mitigating these impacts.
游憩步道沿线的植被群落可能会受到严重的边缘效应影响，包括踩踏、环境条件改变以及与受益于干扰的物种竞争等。为了评估步道沿线植被所受到的影响，我们在南澳大利亚一个受欢迎的干旱地区旅游目的地，选择了 1-10 米范围内游客使用量较高和较低的旅游景点进行对比研究。本研究的主要目的是量化游憩步道沿线旅游活动的影响强度和空间范围，并对道路和步道的影响进行定性比较。在游客使用量较高的地区，步道距离梯度最为明显。在这些地区，物种群落组成发生了变化，植物总盖度降低，外来物种盖度增加，植物多样性增加或减少（取决于距离），土壤紧实度向游憩步道方向增加。道路边缘的影响大于步道边缘的影响。此外，植物多样性并没有像在步道沿线那样连续增加，而是在道路肩急剧下降，这表明存在高干扰条件，很少有物种能够耐受。据我们所知，我们首次证明了进入娱乐场所的方式会影响某些影响的可能性，例如外来物种的增加，从引入点自我延续到存在干扰倾向的不连续点。由于这种影响的推进，道路边缘影响的总体空间范围远远大于从道路边缘评估时最初显现的范围。我们讨论了减轻这些影响的可能方法。
