Saltmarsh Cordgrass Spartina alterniflora Loisel
Saltmarsh cordgrass Spartina alterniflora Loisel, native to North America, is now recognized as one of the most harmful invasive plants in China. Since 1990s, S. alterniflora has successfully invaded the Yangtze River estuary, a globally important eco-reg
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Saltmarsh Cordgrass Spartina alterniflora Loisel Ruiting Ju, Hui Li, Lei Shang, Shiyun Qiu, Jing Li, Ming Nie, and Bo Li
Abstract Saltmarsh cordgrass Spartina alterniflora Loisel, native to North America, is now recognized as one of the most harmful invasive plants in China. Since 1990s, S. alterniflora has successfully invaded the Yangtze River estuary, a globally important eco-region. The invasion has resulted from the plant’s abilities to adapt to the estuarine environments and human disturbances. S. alterniflora invasion has multiple ecological consequences to the estuary. The invader out competes native plants such as Scirpus mariqueter and Phragmites australis, and even causes local extinction of S. mariqueter. In addition to changing native soil microbial community diversity and structure, S. alterniflora may carry a fungal pathogen (Fusarium palustre) from its native range which seriously damages native P. australis. S. alterniflora also significantly alters community structure of soil nematodes and macrobenthonic invertebrates, and changes arthropod abundance. Moreover, the abundance of shorebirds is threatened by S. alterniflora-induced changes in food resources and physical habitats. For ecosystem functioning, S. alterniflora invasion increases primary productivity and alters carbon and nitrogen cycling. In the face of challenges, controlling S. alterniflora has been successfully implemented in the Chongming Dongtan of the Yangtze River estuary, but further studies are needed to find an efficient way to control the invasion at a large scale. Keywords Spartina alterniflora • Biodiversity • Invasion mechanism • Ecosystem functioning • Ecological restoration • Yangtze River estuary
R. Ju (*) • S. Qiu • J. Li • M. Nie • B. Li (*) Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] H. Li College of life and Environmental Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China L. Shang Key Laboratory of Forensic Genetics, Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Public Security, Beijing 100038, China © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 F. Wan et al. (eds.), Biological Invasions and Its Management in China, Invading Nature - Springer Series in Invasion Ecology 13, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3427-5_14
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31.1 Introduction The saltmarsh cordgrass Spartina alterniflora Loisel, native to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America, is a perennial rhizomatous C4 grass in the family Poaceace. As an ecosystem engineer, it was intentionally introduced into China in 1979 for erosion control, soil amelioration, and dike protection in coastal mudflats (An et al. 2007). However, this exotic plant spreads rapidly along the eastern coast of China, where by the year 2000 it had covered more than 112,000 ha from Dandong in Liaoning Province to Beihai in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (An et al. 2007). Because of its biological traits such as rapid growth, high pr
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