Native Plant Diversity: No Match for Invasives

 

Ecologists have long believed that natural areas with low plant diversity are more vulnerable to non-native plant invasions than areas of high plant diversity. But in a paper entitled “The Rich Get Richer: Patterns of Plant Invasions in the United States,” USGS scientist Tom Stohlgren and coauthors David Barnett (Colorado State University) and John Kartesz (Biota of North America Program, University of North Carolina) summarize two large, independent datasets to show exactly the opposite pattern. At multiple spatial scales, but more significantly, at larger spatial scales, hotspots of native plant diversity have been far more heavily invaded than areas of low plant diversity in most parts of the United States. The findings suggest that hotspots of native plant species richness are unlikely to repel invasions, and that the threats of species invasion are significant and predictably greatest in species-rich areas. The work will be published in the inaugural issues of “Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment,” a new journal of the Ecological Society of America. “Frontiers” was unveiled on February 6 at the National Academy of Science in Washington.

 For more information contact: Tom Stohlgren

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