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Alien seedling recruitment as a response to altitude and soil disturbance in the mountain grasslands of central Argentina

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Abstract

Climate and disturbance are considered key factors in explaining plant invasion, mainly by their effect on alien seedling recruitment. We tested whether soil disturbance by digging and altitude, as a sub-set of climate, affected the seedling recruitment of two alien species (Cirsium vulgare and Melilotus alba) in the mountain grasslands of central Argentina. We performed a seed-addition factorial experiment with altitude as a fixed factor co-variable (6 levels), time since sowing (6 levels) as an autoregressive co-variable, and soil disturbance by digging (two levels) and seed addition (two levels) as fixed factors. Seeds of the studied species were sown in replicated undisturbed and disturbed soil plots, in grassland stands located every 200 m from 1200 to 2200 m a.s.l. The number of emerging seedlings at each plot was recorded during a period of 8 months, at intervals of 30–60 days. Seedlings of both alien species emerged at all the studied altitudes, but only the recruitment of C. vulgare increased linearly with altitude. Moreover, the time window of seedling recruitment for this species increased with altitude. Soil disturbance produced a significant decrease in overall seedling emergence of both species; however, an increase in emergence was observed for C. vulgare at an altitude over 2000 m a.s.l. Natural emergence inside control plots without seed addition was only observed for Cirsium vulgare, which indicates that this species was not seed limited. Our results show that altitude and the absence of disturbance do not restrict the recruitment of C. vulgare and M. alba in these natural mountain grasslands. Moreover, these alien species seem to be tolerant to and even favoured by conditions occurring at higher altitudes and in absence of micro-site soil disturbances in the Córdoba mountain grasslands.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G Bertone, MG Roble, M Paiaro, AM Sisti, V Andreani, G Masachessi and LP Storero for their field assistance. This research was supported by the Faculty of Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and IMBIV (CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), and by a grant to EP from CICITCA (21/E 358), Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Argentina.

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  1. Eduardo Pucheta

    Present address: Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Av. Ignacio de la Roza 590 (O), Rivadavia, San Juan, 5400, Argentina

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cátedra de Biogeografía and Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV), CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Casilla de Correo 495, Córdoba, 5000, Argentina

    Valeria Paiaro & Eduardo Pucheta

  2. Cátedra de Estadística y Biometría and Instituto de Investigaciones Entomológicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

    Arnaldo Mangeaud

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  1. Valeria Paiaro
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Correspondence to Valeria Paiaro.

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Paiaro, V., Mangeaud, A. & Pucheta, E. Alien seedling recruitment as a response to altitude and soil disturbance in the mountain grasslands of central Argentina. Plant Ecol 193, 279–291 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-007-9265-1

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