Adrián Lázaro-Lobo

Biodiversity Research Institute (University of Oviedo)

Questions Can we reconcile regional and European classifications of anthropogenic plant communities at the biogeographical scale? How are these communities characterized by species origins, traits and ecological preferences? Location Atlantic territories in the NW Iberian Peninsula (a.k.a. Cantabrian Mixed Forests ecoregion); south‐western Europe....

Invasive alien species are an important component of global change, threatening biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, economy, and human health. The number of alien species that attain the invasive status has experienced an exponential increase in recent years, leading some government agencies and stakeholders to allocate substantial resources to ea...

Cortaderia selloana (Schult. & Schult. f.) Asch. & Graebn. (Pampas grass) is a perennial grass native to temperate and subtropical regions of South America. The species was introduced to western Europe for ornamental purposes during the nineteenth century, where it has become naturalized in anthropogenic and natural habitats, especially in sandy, o...

Background and aims: Biological invasions are causing massive environmental, social, and economic impacts worldwide. Understanding the ecological factors that affect the regeneration of invasive plants is critical to develop action plans based on empirical biological evidence. In this study, we investigate ecological limits in the regeneration of C...

Biological invasions pose a rapidly expanding threat to the persistence, functioning, and service provisioning of ecosystems globally, and to socio-economic interests. The stages of successful invasions progress driven by the same mechanism that underlies adaptive changes across species in general—via natural selection on intraspecific variation in...

Literature describing effective control measures for the floating-leaved plants American lotus (Nelumbo lutea Willd.), white waterlily (Nymphaea odorata Aiton), and watershield (Brasenia schreberi J.F. Gmel.) is minimal as these are usually considered as desirable species. However, floating-leaved plants can cause ecological, economic, and social p...

Urbanisation is occurring globally, leading to dramatic environmental changes that are altering the ecology and evolution of species. In particular, the expansion of human infrastructure and the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats in cities is predicted to increase genetic drift and reduce gene flow by reducing the size and connectivity of p...

Invasive plants affect the capacity of ecosystems to perform key functions, including primary production, nutrient and water cycling, decomposition, energy flow through food webs, or control of disturbance regimes, hydrology, and sedimentation. Invasive plants can also change the composition and structure of the resident community through different...

Urbanization is occurring globally, leading to dramatic environmental changes that are altering the ecology and evolution of species. In particular, the expansion of human infrastructure and the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats in cities is predicted to increase genetic drift and reduce gene flow by reducing the size and connectivity of p...

Invasive alien species have widespread impacts on native biodiversity and ecosystem services. Since the number of introductions worldwide is continuously rising, it is essential to prevent the entry, establishment and spread of new alien species through a systematic examination of future potential threats. Applying a three-step horizon scanning con...

Non-native trees may have significant impacts on the carbon sink capacity of forested lands. However, large-scale patterns of the relative capacity of native and non-native forests to uptake and store carbon remain poorly described in the literature, and this information is urgently needed to support management decisions. In this study, we analyzed...

Traditional agrarian landscapes have been managed over centuries to provide complementary ecosystem services (provision and regulation) in a sustainable manner. The spatial arrangement of patches in these landscapes seems to connect ecosystems of different maturity that complement each other functionally, through exchanges of matter and energy, opt...

Humans have introduced non-native trees (NNT) all over the world to take advantage of the plethora of benefits they provide. However, depending on the context, NNT may present a diverse range of effects on ecosystem services (ES), from benefits to drawbacks, which may hinder the development of policies for these species. Unfortunately, the attempts...

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of forest roadside on plant diversity and composition in the Hyrcanian temperate forest of northern Iran. To collect vegetation data, 116 rectangular sampling plots were established at two microhabitats (i.e., cut and fill slopes) of forest roads. For both microhabitats, the highest life form belonged to hemi...

Limnobium spongia (frogbit) is a free-floating aquatic plant that can produce extensive floating mats causing negative ecological, social, and economic impacts that can harm aquatic fauna (i.e., dissolved oxygen depletion) and restrict human uses of water. Literature describing effective control measures for frogbit is minimal. Efficacy of high and lo...

Biological invasions are an important component of global change, which is threatening the planet's biodiversity and ecosystem services. To manage and mitigate the impacts of global change, it is important to have monitoring tools that allow assessing the impacts of exotic species at several scales in a systematic, periodic, rapid, and effective wa...

Non-native trees enhance services that are fundamental for human well-being. Yet, the extensive use of non-native trees has the potential of causing environmental and socio-economic harm. Eucalyptus and Pinus are the most widely distributed and extensively planted tree genera worldwide, because their rapid growth allows profitable production of tim...

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban...

In this chapter, we present and discuss information regarding biological invasions by species in the genus Baccharis L. around the world: in native, expansive, and introduced distributional ranges. Baccharis halimifolia L. is the invasive species par excellence of this genus. Therefore, we dedicate a great part of the chapter to describe (1) its di...

Aim Humans influence species distributions by modifying the environment and by dispersing species beyond their natural ranges. Populations of species that have established in disjunct regions of the world may exhibit trait differentiation from native populations due to founder effects and adaptations to selection pressures in each distributional re...

ContextInvasive plants cause significant impacts in forested areas throughout the world. However, little is known about the relative importance of environmental drivers on the establishment and spread of invasive plants across forests at broader spatial scales.Objectives We evaluated which factors are more closely associated with successful plant i...

Wetlands are unique, highly biodiverse ecosystems of high conservation value that provide multiple ecosystem services to human society. However, the dynamic nature of wetlands creates abundant opportunities for the establishment and spread of invasive species, especially those well adapted to the current global prevalence of environmental change. W...

Invasive plants are widely spread throughout the forests of the southern United States (US) and are expected to rapidly increase their distributional ranges over the next few decades. Multiple studies have shown that invasive plants pose great challenges to forest regeneration at local spatial scales; however, little is known about how those local-...

Quantitative integration of factors that potentially affect exotic species richness and abundance at multiple spatial scales is relatively scarce in the literature. Our aim was to address this gap by evaluating the relative importance of the biotic community, abiotic factors, and landscape characteristics on the establishment and spread of native a...

Invasive species are widely recognized as a major threat to global diversity and an important factor associated with global change. Species distribution models (SDMs) have been widely applied to determine the range that invasive species could potentially occupy, but most examples focus on predictive variables at a single spatial scale. In this stud...

Evolutionary and transgenerational processes affect offspring trait expression. We examined the influence of local adaptations, maternal environment, maternal traits, and changes in seedling environment on progeny performance of Baccharis halimifolia under different salinity and light levels. Over 34500 seeds from 72 mother plants from 6 native, ex...

Fire plays an important role in plant community structure in many terrestrial ecosystems. However, most studies assume responses of plant communities to fire are primarily generated by direct effects. That is, studies often assume the net effects of fire on plant communities are primarily driven by fire consuming existing plant biomass, resetting s...

Limnobium spongia (frogbit) is a free-floating aquatic plant that can produce extensive floating mats that cause negative impacts to waterbodies. Literature describing effective control measures for frogbit and possible changes in water quality following herbicide treatment of aquatic plants is minimal. Control efficacy and water quality impacts of...

An approach to the mycological catalogue of the Dehesa of Somosierra, in the northeast corner of the Community of Madrid, has been carried out. The expeditions were accomplished from April 2013 to October 2015. A total of 96 species were identified belonging to 45 families and 18 orders. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that the s...

Transportation systems cause multiple ecological impacts by altering biotic and abiotic conditions that affect ecosystem structure and functioning from local to regional scales. I am testing the hypotheses that current and future distribution of exotic species are greatly favored by transportation systems and their adjacent land (e.g., roadsides)....

Roads cause multiple ecological impacts by altering biotic and abiotic conditions that affect ecosystem structure and functioning from local to regional scales. Roadside plant assemblages are driven by the interplay between propagule arrival and seedling establishment, which are highly influenced by roadside characteristics, landscape configuration...

This study represents an approach to the floristic catalogue of the Dehesa of Somosierra, in the northeast corner of the Community of Madrid. The collection of plant material has been carried out along different expeditions from April 2013 to October 2015. A total of 192 species and subspecies were identified belonging to 135 genera and 47 families...

Many studies have shown evidence of very rapid natural colonization of trees on roadslopes. Tree colonization on roadslopes can be a useful tool in the ecological restoration of these degraded areas. However, little is known about the characteristics of the tree species capable of colonizing these novel habitats. Moreover, it is necessary to know h...