Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO) & Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2023 Oct;7(10):1645-1653. doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02181-y. Epub 2023 Aug 31.
While human-driven biological invasions are rapidly spreading, finding scalable and effective control methods poses an unresolved challenge. Here, we assess whether megaherbivores-herbivores reaching ≥1,000 kg of body mass-offer a nature-based solution to plant invasions. Invasive plants are generally adapted to maximize vegetative growth. Megaherbivores, with broad dietary tolerances, could remove large biomass of established plants, facilitating new plant growth. We used a massive dataset obtained from 26,838 camera stations and 158,979 vegetation plots to assess the relationships between megaherbivores, native plants and alien plants across India (~121,330 km). We found a positive relationship between megaherbivore abundance and native plant richness and abundance, and a concomitant reduction in alien plant abundance. This relationship was strongest in protected areas with midproductive ecosystem and high megaherbivore density but it was lost in areas where thicket-forming alien plants predominated (>40% cover). By incorporating the role of ecosystem productivity, plants traits and densities of megaherbivores on megaherbivore-vegetation relationships, our study highlights a function of megaherbivores in controlling alien plant proliferation and facilitating diverse native plants in invaded ecosystems. The study shows great potential for megafauna-based trophic rewilding as a nature-based solution to counteract dominance of plant invasions.
虽然人类驱动的生物入侵正在迅速蔓延，但寻找可扩展且有效的控制方法仍是一个未解决的挑战。在这里，我们评估巨型食草动物（体重达到 1000 公斤以上的食草动物）是否为植物入侵提供了一种基于自然的解决方案。入侵植物通常适应于最大限度地进行营养生长。食草动物具有广泛的饮食耐受性，可以去除大量已建立的植物，促进新植物的生长。我们使用了一个从 26838 个摄像机站和 158979 个植被样地获得的庞大数据集，评估了巨型食草动物、本地植物和外来植物在印度（约 121330 公里）的关系。我们发现巨型食草动物的丰度与本地植物的丰富度和丰度呈正相关，同时外来植物的丰度降低。这种关系在生产力中等的生态系统和高巨型食草动物密度的保护区中最强，但在以形成灌木丛的外来植物为主（>40%的覆盖率）的地区则消失了。通过将生态系统生产力、植物特征和巨型食草动物密度纳入巨型食草动物-植被关系中，我们的研究强调了巨型食草动物在控制外来植物增殖和促进入侵生态系统中多样化的本地植物方面的作用。该研究表明，基于巨型动物的营养再野生化作为一种基于自然的解决方案，具有很大的潜力，可以对抗植物入侵的主导地位。
