Figure 1 - uploaded by Christoph Kueffer
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Hieracium aurantiacum infestation (in flower) in Kosciuszko National Park, Australia. This species has the capacity to invade undisturbed vegetation and quickly attain dominance. The site shown was searched two years prior to the photograph and no Hieracium was detected (photo by Keith McDougall).
Citations
... The Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN, www.mount ainin vasio ns.org) was founded in 2005 as a first global effort to apply the known principles from plant invasion ecology in mountainous environments (Kueffer et al., 2008(Kueffer et al., , 2009. From the start, the main goal has been to link detailed observations at the local-scale from a broad range of mountain regions, to come to global conclusions on common patterns (and divergence from them) regarding mountain plant biodiversity (Kueffer et al., 2014). ...
Climate change and other global change drivers threaten plant diversity in mountains worldwide. A widely documented response to such environmental modifications is for plant species to change their elevational ranges. Range shifts are often idiosyncratic and difficult to generalize, partly due to variation in sampling methods. There is thus a need for a standardized monitoring strategy that can be applied across mountain regions to assess distribution changes and community turnover of native and non‐native plant species over space and time. Here, we present a conceptually intuitive and standardized protocol developed by the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) to systematically quantify global patterns of native and non‐native species distributions along elevation gradients and shifts arising from interactive effects of climate change and human disturbance. Usually repeated every five years, surveys consist of 20 sample sites located at equal elevation increments along three replicate roads per sampling region. At each site, three plots extend from the side of a mountain road into surrounding natural vegetation. The protocol has been successfully used in 18 regions worldwide from 2007 to present. Analyses of one point in time already generated some salient results, and revealed region‐specific elevational patterns of native plant species richness, but a globally consistent elevational decline in non‐native species richness. Non‐native plants were also more abundant directly adjacent to road edges, suggesting that disturbed roadsides serve as a vector for invasions into mountains. From the upcoming analyses of time series, even more exciting results can be expected, especially about range shifts. Implementing the protocol in more mountain regions globally would help to generate a more complete picture of how global change alters species distributions. This would inform conservation policy in mountain ecosystems, where some conservation policies remain poorly implemented. We summarize the findings achieved with the standardized sampling protocol developed by the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) for monitoring the impact of global change on elevational plant species distributions. We intend to promote the use of the protocol to generate global insights into native and non‐native species responses to rapid global change in mountains.
... Owing to their recent invasion, mountain systems provide the opportunity of studying the process from the beginning, and offer good opportunities to analyze mechanisms and causes of invasion over short spatial distances along the elevation gradient (Becker et al. 2005;Kӧrner 2007;Kueffer et al. 2008). This opportunity also shows the possible impacts that non-native species could have in the future, considering the on-going climatic and land use changes. ...
Mountain systems throughout the world are recognized as important biodiversity hot spots with rich and distinct flora, compared to the surrounding lowland regions and provide ecosystem services that are important for agriculture and forestry, for touristic, recreational and cultural activities. For these reasons the spread of invasive non-native species can be a threat to the mountains, increasing direct and indirect costs or decreasing the income of the inhabitants. Several studies have been carried out in the Alps, in order to highlight the distribution of alien species and to elucidate the factors that influence their occurrence, considering climate, disturbance and, in particular, human impact and introduction pathways as extrinsic factors while the plant traits of alien species, propagule pressure, and the invasibility of habitats have been considered as intrinsic factors driving the arrival and success of the new comers. All results highlight that the invasion process in the Alps is at the beginning and it is still possible to limit its impacts, since the invasions at high elevations will occur over long periods of time so that researchers and managers have the opportunity of responding in time to the threat. In this work results that have been obtained from research carried out in the Western Italian Alps are analyzed and discussed considering similar results obtained in other mountain regions. The following topics are discussed: (a) the distribution of alien species along the elevation gradient; (b) the influence of climatic factors on the distribution; (c) species invasive capacity; (d) habitat invasibility; (e) distribution models.
... Research into biological invasions is clearly skewed toward developed countries, where most scientists and funding sources are located (Pysek et al. 2008;Nuñez and Pauchard 2009); mountain plant invasions are no exception. Global networks such as MIREN (Mountain Invasion Research Network) can help to reduce this disparity, by developing core research projects where specific questions are addressed through surveys and experiments that can then be applied to all mountains (Kueffer et al. 2008). MIREN was co-founded by scientists from a developing country in South America (Chile) and has recently incorporated partners from both Asia and Africa. ...
... Research into biological invasions is clearly skewed toward developed countries, where most scientists and funding sources are located (Pysek et al. 2008;Nuñez and Pauchard 2009); mountain plant invasions are no exception. Global networks such as MIREN (Mountain Invasion Research Network) can help to reduce this disparity, by developing core research projects where specific questions are addressed through surveys and experiments that can then be applied to all mountains (Kueffer et al. 2008). MIREN was co-founded by scientists from a developing country in South America (Chile) and has recently incorporated partners from both Asia and Africa. ...
... Research into biological invasions is clearly skewed toward developed countries, where most scientists and funding sources are located (Pysek et al. 2008;Nuñez and Pauchard 2009); mountain plant invasions are no exception. Global networks such as MIREN (Mountain Invasion Research Network) can help to reduce this disparity, by developing core research projects where specific questions are addressed through surveys and experiments that can then be applied to all mountains (Kueffer et al. 2008). MIREN was co-founded by scientists from a developing country in South America (Chile) and has recently incorporated partners from both Asia and Africa. ...
In this work the occurrence of non-native species was recorded along the elevation gradient in the Alps, in order to establish their distribution pattern, their current altitudinal limits and to elucidate which species are presumably adapted to higher elevations. Plots were located along the course of rivers in five valleys from 100 to 2100m a.s.l. Sixty-eight non-natives were recorded in the study area. The proportion of invasives was found to be much higher in the study area then in the whole administrative region. The number of non-natives per plot decreased strongly with increasing elevation. The great majority (94%) of the non-native species grows at the lowest elevations, while only 6% survive up to 1500m and none was found above this limit. Results were interpreted considering the factors driving the invasion process (disturbance, the native communities' resistance to invasion, propagule pressure, climatic conditions) and plant traits with particular respect to pre-adaptation to the harsh climate, which increases progressively with elevation. Results confirm that the Alps are not immune from invasion, at least up to medium elevation.