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Weak effects on plant diversity of two invasive Impatiens species

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Abstract

The study aimed to examine the effect of the invasion of the two congeneric species Impatiens glandulifera and Impatiens parviflora on species richness and composition across a wide range of communities in North-western Germany. We applied a space-for-time substitution approach, comparing invaded plots with adjacent, environmentally similar uninvaded plots, based on the assumption that the latter represent the situation prior to an invasion. Even though the dominance of the invasive species resulted in a lower Shannon diversity in the invaded plots, species richness was not (I. parviflora) or only weakly (I. glandulifera) reduced. Also the community composition of the invaded sites was only marginally different. Invaded and uninvaded plots in general had similar habitat conditions, but both Impatiens species occurred in slightly shadier sites compared to the uninvaded areas, and the plots invaded by I. parviflora tended to have higher nutrient concentrations. These results suggest that dense populations of invading species may often be found at particular microsites. The relatively low impact of Impatiens on the vegetation is most likely caused by the annual life strategy of the species: while I. glandulifera shows large fluctuations in numbers between years and has a later phenological development than most other species in its habitat, I. parviflora establishes preferably in dark and acidic, often disturbed woodlands where it competes with few other species.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Josef Müller for his help with identifying some plant species and to Dörthe Wagner and Andreas Suchopar for their assistance with the processing and analysis of soil samples. Two reviewers and the managing editor made many helpful comments to an earlier draft of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vegetation Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Ecology, FB 2, University of Bremen, Leobener Str., 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Martin Diekmann, Hannah Effertz, Monika Baranowski & Cecilia Dupré

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  1. Martin Diekmann
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  2. Hannah Effertz
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  3. Monika Baranowski
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  4. Cecilia Dupré
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Correspondence to Martin Diekmann.

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Communicated by Jodi Price.

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Appendix Figures

Fig. 5. DCA ordination diagram of species in 50 plots invaded by Impatiens glandulifera and 50 adjacent plots that are not invaded. To avoid overlapping names, some species are given with “+.” Environmental variables were post hoc fitted to the ordination results and displayed as vectors if significant at p < 0.01. For ordination statistics, see Fig. 2a. Fig. 6. DCA ordination diagram of species in 30 plots invaded by Impatiens parviflora and 30 adjacent plots that are not invaded. To avoid overlapping names, some species are given with “+.” Environmental variables were post hoc fitted to the ordination results and displayed as vectors if significant at p<0.01. For ordination statistics, see Fig. 2b (PDF 44 kb)

Appendix Table 3

Vegetation table of 50 pairs of plots, invaded by Impatiens glandulifera (i) or uninvaded (u) by the species. The species are ordered by layers and within layers by frequency. Transformed Braun-Blanquet cover-abundance scores of all species are given (XLSX 67 kb)

Appendix Table 4

Vegetation table of 30 pairs of plots, invaded by Impatiens parviflora (i) or uninvaded (u) by the species. The species (only field layer is shown) are ordered by frequency. Transformed Braun-Blanquet cover-abundance scores of all species are given (XLSX 25 kb)

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Diekmann, M., Effertz, H., Baranowski, M. et al. Weak effects on plant diversity of two invasive Impatiens species. Plant Ecol 217, 1503–1514 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-016-0663-0

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