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Invasion of glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) and native forest loss in the Sierras Chicas of Córdoba, Argentina

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Abstract

Glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) is a tree native to China that successfully invades forests of central Argentina. To fully understand glossy privet’s ecological effects on native forest, it is necessary to accurately map the distribution of glossy privet stands and the changes in biodiversity and forest structure of the invaded areas. The objectives of this paper were (1) to map the distribution of glossy privet stands in an area representative of the Sierras Chicas (Córdoba, Argentina) and (2) compare composition, structure and regeneration between glossy privet invaded stands and native forest stands. Using four Landsat TM images (October 2005, March, May and July 2006) we mapped the distribution of a glossy privet-dominated stand using a support vector machine, a non-parametric classifier. We recorded forest structure variables and tree diversity on 105 field plots. Glossy privet-dominated stands occupied 3,407 ha of the total forested land in the study area (27,758 ha), had an average of 33 glossy privet trees (dbh > 2.5 cm) per plot and the cover of their shrub and herb strata was substantially reduced compared with native forest. Forest regeneration was dominated by glossy privet in native forest stands adjacent to glossy privet-dominated stands. We conclude that in the Sierras Chicas glossy privet has become a widespread invader, changing the patterns of vertical structure, diversity, and regeneration in native forests.

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Acknowledgments

We thank A. Cingolani for valuable comments and suggestions on previous versions of the manuscript. C. Blumzak provided valuable assistance in the field. S. Benavidez generously provided field plot data for native forests. S. Schmidt, M. Hoyos and T. Albright greatly improved the English. We thank also two anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments during the reviewing process which substantially improved the manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge support from a Tinker-Nave Short Term Field Research Grant of the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and the Fulbright/Organization of American States Fellowship to G. Gavier-Pizarro, from the Master in Wildlife Management Program (Maestría en Manejo de Vida Silvestre) of the National University of Córdoba to L. Hoyos, and a Fedor Lynen Research Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to T. Kuemmerle. We would also like to thank A. Rabe, S. van der Linden, and P. Hostert for sharing the image SVM software and for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV-CONICET) and Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Av. Vélez Sarsfield 299, C.C. 495, 5000, Córdoba, Argentina

    Laura E. Hoyos & Paula A. Tecco

  2. Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Gregorio I. Gavier-Pizarro, Tobias Kuemmerle & Volker C. Radeloff

  3. Centro de Zoología Aplicada, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Rondeau 798, P.O. Box 122, Córdoba, Argentina

    Enrique H. Bucher

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  1. Laura E. Hoyos
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  2. Gregorio I. Gavier-Pizarro
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  3. Tobias Kuemmerle
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  4. Enrique H. Bucher
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  5. Volker C. Radeloff
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  6. Paula A. Tecco
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Correspondence to Laura E. Hoyos.

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Hoyos, L.E., Gavier-Pizarro, G.I., Kuemmerle, T. et al. Invasion of glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) and native forest loss in the Sierras Chicas of Córdoba, Argentina. Biol Invasions 12, 3261–3275 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-010-9720-0

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