Abstract
This study is part of a general project to analyse the biological and ecological mechanisms that influence the invasion of Mediterranean sand dune ecosystems by alien plants. In this paper we analyse the morphological and functional traits of coastal dune wild species (natives and aliens) based mainly on information from the literature. The most common 130 wild species occurring on the recent (Holocenic) coastal dunes were included considering the invasive status of alien plants. A comparative analysis of functional groups was performed through ordination techniques (PCoA using the Gower index). This reveals four functional groups related to the most important plant communities in coastal vegetation zonation. Alien plants were found in all functional groups and no trait or set of traits was specifically related to them. This indicates that aliens show similar traits to those natives growing in different communities of the coastal dune zonation, from the small beach annuals to the evergreen taller shrubs of the Mediterranean macchia. When the invasive status of alien species was taken into account, however, some differences emerged: a) casual aliens were found in almost all groups but their traits were not interpreted as being due to any particular adaptive strategy; b) naturalised aliens were only found in the less fluctuating habitats of the inner coastal zones; c) invasive alien species were connected with two major plant strategies: annual invasive aliens (quick-to-mature low grasses and herbs) and perennial invasive aliens (taller and often strongly clonal).
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Abbreviations
- PCoA:
-
Principal Coordinates Analysis
References
Acosta, A., A. Stanisci, S. Ercole and C. Blasi. 2003. Sandy coastal landscape of the Lazio region (Central Italy). Phytocoenologia 33: 715–726.
Acosta, A., M.L. Carranza, F. Conti, G. De Marco, G. D’Orazio, A.R. Frattaroli, C.F. Izzi, G. Pirone and A. Stanisci. 2005a. Banca dati della flora costiera psammofila dell’Italia centrale. Inf. Bot. Ital. 37 (1/A):110–111.
Acosta, A., M.L. Carranza and F. Izzi. 2005b. Combining land cover mapping of coastal dunes with vegetation analysis. Applied Veg. Sci. 8: 133–138.
Akeroyd, J.R. and C.D. Preston. 1990. Notes on some Aizoaceae naturalised in Europe. In: Chater, A.O. Flora Europaea: Notulae Systematicae ad Floram Europaeam. Series 2, N. 3. Bot. J. Linnean Soc. 102: 197–120.
Biondi, E. 1999. Diversità fitocenotica degli ambienti costieri italiani. Bol. Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali di Venezia 49: 39–105.
Camarda, I. and G. Brundu. 2004. Inventario e sistema informativo delle specie esotiche in Sardegna. Inf. Bot. Ital. 36: 134–138.
Campos, J.A., M. Herrera, I. Biurrun and J. Loidi. 2004. The role of alien plants in the natural coastal vegetation in central-northern Spain. Biodiversity and Conservation 13: 2275–2293.
Castillo, S. A. and P. Moreno-Casasola. 1996. Coastal sand dune vegetation: an extreme case of species invasion. J. Coastal Conservation 2: 13–22.
Conti, F., G. Abbate, A. Alessandrini and C. Blasi. 2005. An annotated checklist of the Italian vascular flora. Ed. Palombi, Roma.
Cornelissen, J.H.C., A. Lavorel, E. Garnier, S. Diaz, N. Buchmann, D.E. Gurvich, P.B. Reich, H. ter Steege, H.D. Morgan, M.G.A. van der Heijden, J.G. Pausas and H. Poorter. 2003. A handbook of protocols for standardised and easy measurement of plant functional traits worldwide. Austr. J. Bot. 51:335–380.
Diez-Garretas, B., A. Asensi and R. Gavilan, 2003. Sabulicoulous therophytic plant communities in the Mediterranean region: a proposal of phytosociological synthesis. Phytocoenologia 33: 495–526.
Di Iorio, A., A. Stanisci, A. Acosta, M. Vergalito and M. Lucarelli. 2005. Caratteri ecologico-funzionali di alcune specie del litorale sabbioso molisano. Inf. Bot. Ital. 37 (1/A): 204–205.
Géhu, J. M., M. Costa, A. Scoppola, E. Biondi, S. Marchiori, J.B. Peris, J. Franck, G. Caniglia and L. Veri. 1984. Essai synsystématique et synchorologique sur les végétations littorales italiennes dans un but conservatoire. Documents phytosociologiques N.S. 8: 394–431.
Heywood, V. (ed.) 1995. Global Biodiversity Assessment. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Kolar, C. and D.M. Lodge. 2001. Progress in invasion biology: predicting invaders. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 16:199–204.
Lake, J. C. and M. R. Leishman. 2004. Invasion success of exotic plants in natural ecosystems: the role of disturbance, plant attributes and freedom from herbivores. Biol. Conserv. 117: 215–226.
Levine, J. M., M. Vilà, C. M. D’Antonio, J. S. Dukes, K. Grigulis, and S. Lavorel. 2003. Mechanisms underlying the impacts of exotic plants invasions. Proc. Royal Soc. London B 270: 775–781
Lloret, F., F. Médail, G. Brundu, I. Camarda, E. Moragues, J. Rita, P. Lambdon and P.E. Hulme. 2005. Species attributes and invasion success by alien plants on Mediterranean islands. J. Ecol. 93:512–520.
Lonsdale, W. M. 1999. Global patterns of plant invasions and the concept of invasibility. Ecology 80: 1522–1536.
Pignatti, S. 1982. Flora d’Italia. Edagricole, Bologna.
Podani, J. 1999. Extending Gower’s general coefficient of similarity to ordinal characters. Taxon 48: 331–340.
Podani, J. 2000. Introduction to the Exploration of Multivariate Biological Data. Backhuys, Leiden.
Podani, J. 2001. SYN-TAX 2000. Computer programs for multivariate data analysis in ecology and systematics. Scientia Publishing, Budapest.
Pyšek, P., D. Richardson, M. Rejmànek, G. Webster, M. Williamson and J. Kirschner. 2004. Alien plants in checklists and floras: toward better communication between taxonomists and ecologists. Taxon 53: 131–143.
Rejmánek, M. and D. Richardson. 1996. What attributes make some plant species more invasive? Ecology 77:1655–1661.
Rejmánek, M. 2000. Invasive plants: approaches and predictions. Aust. Ecol. 25:497–506.
Richardson, D., P. Pyšek, M. Rejmanek, M. Barbour, D. Panetta and C. West. 2000. Naturalization and invasion of alien plants: concepts and definitions. Diversity and Distributions 6:93–107.
Rodgers, J.C. III and K.C. Parker. 2003. Distribution of alien plant species in relation to human disturbance on the Georgia Sea Islands. Diversity and Distributions 9: 385–398.
Stanisci, A., A. Acosta, S. Ercole and C. Blasi. 2004. Plant communities in coastal dunes in Lazio (Italy). Annali di Botanica 4:1 15–128.
Stanisci, A. and F. Conti. 1990. Aspetti vegetazionali di un settore costiero molisano-abruzzese. Ann. Bot. (Roma), Studi sul Territorio 48 (7): 85–94.
Suehs, C.M., L. Affre and F. Médail. 2004. Invasion dynamics of two alien Carpobrotus (Aizoaceae) taxa on a Mediterranean island I. Genetic diversity and introgression. Heredity 92:31–40.
Sutherland, S. 2004. What makes a weed a weed? Life history traits of native and exotic plants in the USA. Oecologia 141:24–39.
Taffetani, F. and E. Biondi. 1989. La vegetazione del litorale molisano e pugliese tra le foci dei Fiumi Biferno e Fortore (Adriatico centro-meridionale). Colloques phytosociologiques 26: 323–349.
Thompson, K., J.G. Hodgson and T.C.G. Rich. 1995. Native and alien invasive plants: more of the same? Ecography 18:390–402.
Tutin, T.G., V.H. Heywood, N.A. Burges, D.M. Moore, D.H. Valentine, S.M. Walters and D.A. Webb. 1964–1993. Flora Europea. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Viegi, L., G. Cela z and F. Garbari. 1974. Flora esotica d’Italia. Lav. Soc. Ital. Biogeogr. 4:125–220.
Webb, D. A. (ed.). 1964–1993. Flora Europaea. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.
Weber, H.F., J. Moravec and J.-P. Theurillat, 2000. International Code of phytosociological nomenclature. 3rd edition. J. Veg. Sci. 11: 739–768.
Williamson, M.H. and A. Fitter. 1996. The characters of successful invaders. Biological Conservation 78:163–170.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Acosta, A., Izzi, C.F. & Stanisci, A. Comparison of native and alien plant traits in Mediterranean coastal dunes. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 7, 35–41 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.7.2006.1.4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.7.2006.1.4
Keywords
Nomenclature
- Nomenclature of species follows Conti et al. (2005)
- Owing to taxonomical problems that are yet to be clearly resolved
- Carpobrotus edulis and Carpobrotus acinaciformis (Akeroyd and Preston 1990, Suehs et al. 2004) were considered as a complex: Carpobrotus spp.