Invasive legume affects species and functional composition of mountain meadow plant communities
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Invasive legume affects species and functional composition of mountain meadow plant communities Wiebke Hansen . Julia Wollny Kristin Ludewig
. Annette Otte
. R. Lutz Eckstein
.
Received: 28 January 2020 / Accepted: 20 September 2020 Ó The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Plant invasions are among the key drivers of global biodiversity and ecosystem change. They often cause reductions in native species richness and overall biodiversity. Nitrogen-fixing plants are problematic as they affect soil nutrient availability and outcompete species of nutrient-poor sites. Here we assessed the impacts of the legume Lupinus polyphyllus on species and functional diversity of mountain meadow communities in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Rho¨n. We compared species diversity (richness, evenness and effective species number), functional diversity (functional richness, evenness, divergence and dispersion) and similarity of plots in three characteristic vegetation types (Nardus grassland, mesic and wet mountain hay meadows) between different lupine cover classes. We calculated community weighted means (CWMs) of single plant traits and plotted them against lupine cover classes. The invasion of L. polyphyllus homogenizes vegetation composition since the similarity among plots of the
W. Hansen (&) J. Wollny A. Otte K. Ludewig Division of Landscape Ecology and Landscape Planning, Research Centre for Biosystems, Land Use and Nutrition (IFZ), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-BuffRing 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany e-mail: [email protected] R. L. Eckstein Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Biology, Karlstad University, Universitetsgatan 2, 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden
different vegetation types increased with increasing lupine cover. It significantly affected species diversity in terms of richness and effective species number and the functional divergence of the vegetation. The trait set of species occurring together with lupine was shifted towards more competitive trait values. We demonstrate strongly negative impacts of L. polyphyllus on different mountain meadow vegetation types since L. polyphyllus, fosters the growth of competitive species and leads to overall more productive plant communities. Keywords Plant functional traits Functional indices Diversity indices Invasive plant species Lupinus polyphyllus Mountain grasslands
Introduction Plant invasions are considered one of the major drivers of ecosystem modification and biodiversity change at the global scale (Davis et al. 2011; Duraiappah et al. 2005; Hejda and Pysˇek 2009; Keller et al. 2011). The immediate and long-term consequences of invasions may often be detrimental for the invaded ecosystems, as plant invasions have led to substantial declines in biodiversity and ecosystems functioning. Invasive plant species may also affect native plant communities through altered habitat structure and related changes in
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light conditions (Otte and Maul 2005) or
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