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Multivariate analysis of invasive plant species distributions in southern US forests

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Abstract

Context

Invasive plants cause significant impacts in forested areas throughout the world. However, little is known about the relative importance of environmental drivers on the establishment and spread of invasive plants across forests at broader spatial scales.

Objectives

We evaluated which factors are more closely associated with successful plant invasions across southern United States (US) forests and predicted regional susceptibility to invasion by 16 known major invasive plant taxa.

Methods

We compiled environmental variables and presence-absence data for invasive plants across 52,690 southern US forestland plots surveyed by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service. We used an ensemble species distribution modeling approach to model the potential distribution of the invasive plants and evaluated effects of the environmental predictors on species occurrences.

Results

Invasive species presence was favored by proximity to land use such as pastures, croplands, and developed areas, as well as by high light availability and soil capacity to retain nutrients and water. Soil organic matter was negatively correlated with invasive species presence. However, the effect of climatic variables and other soil properties, such as pH and soil depth, was species-specific.

Conclusions

Climate, land use, and soil organic matter were important but varied in their influence on invasive species distributions. Our results also indicate that most of our focal invasive plants are likely to occupy large forested areas throughout the study region. Thus, estimates of invasion risk should be incorporated into conservation strategies to prevent further establishment of invasive plants in forested areas.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely appreciate the effort from numerous hard-working state and federal individuals for surveying the FIA plots. Additionally, we are grateful to Jeffery Turner and William Watkins from the USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Forest Inventory & Analysis Unit, Knoxville, TN, for providing invaluable assistance in accessing FIA data. We also thank Anna Grossman (USFS, Southern Region, State & Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection) who sponsored the Environmental Monitoring Program award within the Region’s Forest Health Protection program-areas. This research was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station and the Environmental Monitoring program award 19-DG11083150-006 to GNE & RDL.

Funding

This research was supported, in part, by the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station and the Environmental Monitoring program award 19-DG11083150-006 to GNE & RDL. This research was, in part, conducted by a USDA research scientist (RDL) on official time, and is therefore, in the public domain. This research does not represent any official policy declarations on behalf of the USDA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, 295 Lee Blvd, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, USA

    Adrián Lázaro-Lobo & Gary N. Ervin

  2. Quantitative Ecology & Spatial Technologies Laboratory, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, 39760, USA

    Carlos Ramirez-Reyes

  3. Insects, Diseases, & Invasive Plants, Southern Research Station, Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Rima D. Lucardi

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  1. Adrián Lázaro-Lobo
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  3. Rima D. Lucardi
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  4. Gary N. Ervin
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Contributions

ALL: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization, Funding acquisition. CRR: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Data Curation, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization. RDL: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Resources, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Funding acquisition. GNE: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Resources, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Adrián Lázaro-Lobo.

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Lázaro-Lobo, A., Ramirez-Reyes, C., Lucardi, R.D. et al. Multivariate analysis of invasive plant species distributions in southern US forests. Landscape Ecol 36, 3539–3555 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-021-01326-3

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