Department of Biogeography, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany.
BioInvasions, Global Change, Macroecology Group, Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Ecol Lett. 2023 May;26(5):729-741. doi: 10.1111/ele.14196. Epub 2023 Mar 23.
Human-mediated changes in island vegetation are, among others, largely caused by the introduction and establishment of non-native species. However, data on past changes in non-native plant species abundance that predate historical documentation and censuses are scarce. Islands are among the few places where we can track human arrival in natural systems allowing us to reveal changes in vegetation dynamics with the arrival of non-native species. We matched fossil pollen data with botanical status information (native, non-native), and quantified the timing, trajectories and magnitude of non-native plant vegetational change on 29 islands over the past 5000 years. We recorded a proportional increase in pollen of non-native plant taxa within the last 1000 years. Individual island trajectories are context-dependent and linked to island settlement histories. Our data show that non-native plant introductions have a longer and more dynamic history than is generally recognized, with critical implications for biodiversity baselines and invasion biology.
人类活动引起的岛屿植被变化在很大程度上是由非本地物种的引入和定植造成的。然而，在历史文献和普查之前，关于过去非本地植物物种丰度变化的数据却很少。岛屿是我们可以追踪人类进入自然系统的少数几个地方之一，这使我们能够揭示随着非本地物种的到来，植被动态的变化。我们将化石花粉数据与植物学状况信息（本地、非本地）相匹配，并在过去 5000 年中量化了 29 个岛屿上非本地植物植被变化的时间、轨迹和幅度。我们记录了过去 1000 年内非本地植物分类群花粉的比例增加。个别岛屿的轨迹是由背景决定的，并与岛屿定居历史有关。我们的数据表明，非本地植物的引入具有比人们普遍认识到的更长、更动态的历史，这对生物多样性基线和入侵生物学具有重要意义。
