Grass fires and road structure influence plant invasions in a critical wildlife habitat in north-eastern India. (3rd June 2023)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Grass fires and road structure influence plant invasions in a critical wildlife habitat in north-eastern India. (3rd June 2023)
- Main Title:
- Grass fires and road structure influence plant invasions in a critical wildlife habitat in north-eastern India
- Authors:
- Banerjee, Subham
Das, Amit
Rahman, Masidur
Bhowal, Swapnil
Das, Dhritiman
John, Robert - Abstract:
- Summary: One of the multiple threats to protected areas worldwide, invasive plant species have the potential to decrease biodiversity and ecosystem function. We studied changes in infestation by two widespread invasive plant species – Chromolaena odorata and Mikania micrantha – in India's Manas National Park, a critical conservation site for threatened flora and fauna. Based on field surveys in 2011 and 2019, we found that C . odorata and M . micrantha were present in most of the sampled plots and had newly invaded over 20% of the plots. However, the abundance of M. micrantha decreased in 45% of the plots while C. odorata increased in >50% of the plots. We used a decision tree-based regression with environmental variables as predictors to generate the distribution, abundance and invasion risk maps of the two species. Among environmental variables, road proximity and fire frequency had the strongest influences, respectively, on C. odorata and M. micrantha . Invaded quadrats exhibited lower native-plant diversity than non-invaded quadrats, and C. odorata specifically had a strong negative association with native-plant community structure. These invasive species have increased their range and abundance, and our predicted invasion risk maps indicate the areas where management intervention is urgently needed.
- Is Part Of:
- Environmental conservation. Volume 50:Number 2(2023)
- Journal:
- Environmental conservation
- Issue:
- Volume 50:Number 2(2023)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 50, Issue 2 (2023)
- Year:
- 2023
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- 2
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2023-0050-0002-0000
- Page Start:
- 99
- Page End:
- 107
- Publication Date:
- 2023-06-03
- Subjects:
- biodiversity -- Chromolaena odorata -- invasive species -- Manas National Park -- Mikania micrantha -- protected area -- Terai
Environmental protection -- Periodicals
363.7 - Journal URLs:
- http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=ENC ↗
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0376892923000024 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0376-8929
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library STI - ELD Digital Store
- Ingest File:
- 27089.xml