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British plants as aliens in New Zealand cities: residence time moderates their impact on the beta diversity of urban floras

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Abstract

Anthropogenic activities have weakened biogeographical barriers to dispersal, thereby promoting the introduction, establishment and spread of alien species outside their native ranges. Several studies have identified a number of biological and ecological drivers that contribute to the establishment of plant species in the invaded range. One long-term factor that is generally accepted as a relevant determinant of invasion success is residence time, or time since first introduction into the new region. Residence time is often an important correlate of range extent in the invaded region, such that alien species with longer residence times in the novel environment tend to be more widely distributed. Plant species that were introduced in different regions at different times provide a unique opportunity to examine the effect of residence time on invasion success. In this paper, we examined how residence time affects the beta diversity of alien plants in selected urban floras of New Zealand and of English and Irish cities. We used an intercontinental plant exchange as a model system, comparing groups of species introduced to New Zealand and to the British Isles at different times (i.e., species native to the British Isles, British archaeophytes and British neophytes) and asked if differences in their beta diversity can be related to differences in their residence times. Our results suggest that observed patterns of beta diversity among the urban floras of New Zealand and of English and Irish cities can be attributed to a combination of residence time and of pre-adaptation to urban habitats that evolved, or were filtered in association with human activities, before the species were introduced into the invaded range.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to John Wilson for helpful comments on a previous draft of this paper, and to Leon Perrie (WELT), Ewen Cameron and Dhahara Ranatunga (AK) and Ines Schonberger (CHR) for arrival dates of invading Poaceae in New Zealand. PP was supported by long-term research development project RVO 67985939, Centre of Excellence PLADIAS No. 14-36079G from Czech Science Foundation, and Praemium Academiae award from The Czech Academy of Sciences. An early version of this paper was presented at a workshop on ‘Non-native species in urban environments: Patterns, processes, impacts and challenges’ hosted and funded by the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology (CIB) in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in November 2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Biology, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy

    Carlo Ricotta

  2. Ecology Group, Institute of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Gillian L. Rapson

  3. Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Applied Science Weihenstephan-Triesdorf, Weidenbach, Germany

    Ullrich Asmus

  4. Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Průhonice, Czech Republic

    Petr Pyšek

  5. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Petr Pyšek

  6. Department of Botany and Zoology, Centre for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, 7602, South Africa

    Petr Pyšek

  7. Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Halle, Germany

    Ingolf Kühn

  8. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Ingolf Kühn

  9. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA

    Frank A. La Sorte

  10. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Ken Thompson

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  1. Carlo Ricotta
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  2. Gillian L. Rapson
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  4. Petr Pyšek
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  6. Frank A. La Sorte
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  7. Ken Thompson
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Correspondence to Carlo Ricotta.

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Guest Editors: Mirijam Gaertner, John R. U. Wilson, Marc W. Cadotte, J. Scott MacIvor, Rafael D. Zenni and David M. Richardson/Urban Invasions.

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Ricotta, C., Rapson, G.L., Asmus, U. et al. British plants as aliens in New Zealand cities: residence time moderates their impact on the beta diversity of urban floras. Biol Invasions 19, 3589–3599 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1590-2

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