Monitoring of forest components reveals that exotic tree species are not always invasive in areas under ecological resto
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Monitoring of forest components reveals that exotic tree species are not always invasive in areas under ecological restoration Vinícius Londe & Hildeberto Caldas de Sousa Maria Cristina Teixeira Braga Messias
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Received: 2 June 2020 / Accepted: 27 August 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Exotic species are known to become invasive in several ecosystems, including areas undergoing restoration. But does that always happen? We monitored the tree layer, seed rain, and regenerating layer of 10year and 20-year-old forests under restoration in southeast Brazil to verify if planted exotic trees were behaving as invasive; if they were influencing the species richness and abundance of regenerating native plants; and the probabilities of exotic trees perpetuating over time. Data from the three forest components (trees, seed rain, and regenerating) were collected in 12 permanent plots of 100 m2 each in each study area. Collected data were analyzed through generalized linear models (GLM) and Markov chains. We verified that exotic species were not behaving as invasive species. Of the five species planted, Acacia mangium, Syzygium cumini, and Psidium guajava were dispersing seeds but recruiting only six new individuals. In general, the species richness and abundance of exotic trees were not related to the richness and abundance of regenerating
native plants. In addition, the chances of individuals’ transition between forest components were in most cases nil, so that exotic species should continue not to spread in the 10- and 20-year-old forests. We assume that biotic resistance was occurring in the assembled communities and this prevented exotic trees from behaving as invaders. Monitoring of forest components helped to better understand the role of non-native species in the dynamics of these novel ecosystems. Monitoring also indicated that not all recovering forests need management actions against exotic trees after a decade or two of restoration.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08583-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Ecological restoration is now a consolidated practice, and ambitious goals of restoration have been developed aiming to recover degraded ecosystems in many countries (Bonn Challenge 2014). Ecological restoration is understood as an intentional activity which initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem in relation to its health, integrity, and sustainability (SER 2004). Distinct objectives can be defined when a restoration action is implemented (e.g., to restore functionality and/or diversity), but in general attempts to return the ecosystem to its historic trajectory (SER 2004).
V. Londe (*) Technical Support Fellow, Department of Biodiversity, Evolution and Environment, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] H. C. de Sousa : M. C. T. B. Messias Department of Biodiversity, Evolution and Environment, Federal University of
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