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Plant Invasions in Protected Landscapes: Exception or Expectation?

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Plant Invasions in Protected Areas

Part of the book series: Invading Nature - Springer Series in Invasion Ecology ((INNA,volume 7))

Abstract

While protection may alleviate some concerns within protected areas, should protection also be expected to mitigate the likelihood of invasion by alien species? Plant community dynamics may be thought of as generated by three broad classes of drivers: site availability and history, species availability and species performance. As all plant communities are dynamic and plant invasions may be involved in these dynamics, this framework may be useful in exploring the role of protection in invasion. In reviewing examples of individual drivers of plant community dynamics, the potential for mechanisms that lie outside local control to lead to invasion is found to be great. This suggests that alien plant invasions should be expected in most landscapes, even those with some level of protection. Linkages with management practices are also highlighted.

The disappearance of plants and animal species without visible cause despite efforts to protect them and the irruption of others as pests despite efforts to control them must in the absence of simpler explanations be regarded as symptoms of sickness in the land organism. Both are occurring too frequently to be dismissed as normal evolutionary events.

Aldo Leopold 1949 – A Sand County Almanac

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL, 61920, USA

    Scott J. Meiners

  2. Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY, 12545, USA

    Steward T. A. Pickett

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  1. Scott J. Meiners
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  2. Steward T. A. Pickett
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Correspondence to Scott J. Meiners .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. South African National Parks, Centre for Invasion Biology Conservation Services, Skukuza, South Africa

    Llewellyn C. Foxcroft

  2. Department of Invasion Ecology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Institute of Botany, průhonice, Czech Republic

    Petr Pyšek

  3. Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University Center for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    David M. Richardson

  4. ISPRA Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, and Chair IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group, Rome, Italy

    Piero Genovesi

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Meiners, S.J., Pickett, S.T.A. (2013). Plant Invasions in Protected Landscapes: Exception or Expectation?. In: Foxcroft, L., Pyšek, P., Richardson, D., Genovesi, P. (eds) Plant Invasions in Protected Areas. Invading Nature - Springer Series in Invasion Ecology, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7750-7_3

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