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Past Arctic aliens have passed away, current ones may stay
Citation
Alsos, IG and Ware, C and Elven, R, Past Arctic aliens have passed away, current ones may stay, Biological Invasions, 17, (11) pp. 3113-3123. ISSN 1387-3547 (2015) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2015 The Author Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
DOI: doi:10.1007/s10530-015-0937-9
Abstract
Increased human activity and climate
change are expected to increase the numbers and
impact of alien species in the Arctic, but knowledge of
alien species is poor in most Arctic regions. Through
field investigations over the last 10 years, and review
of alien vascular plant records for the high Arctic
Archipelago Svalbard over the past 130 years, we
explored long term trends in persistence and phenology.
In total, 448 observations of 105 taxa have been
recorded from 28 sites. Recent surveys at 18 of these
sites revealed that alien species had disappeared at half
of them. Investigations at a further 49 sites characterised
by former human activity and/or current tourist
landing sites did not reveal any alien species. Patterns
of alien species distribution suggest that greater alien
species richness is more likely to be aligned with
ongoing human inhabitation than sites of transient use.
The probability of an alien species being in a more
advanced phenological stage increased with higher
mean July temperatures. As higher mean July temperatures
are positively correlated with more recent
year, the latter finding suggests a clear warming effect
on the increased reproductive potential of alien plants,
and thus an increased potential for spread in Svalbard.
Given that both human activity and temperatures are
expected to increase in the future, there is need to
respond in policy and action to reduce the potential for
further alien species introduction and spread in the
Arctic.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | alien, Arctic, climate change, management, non-native species, phenology |
| Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
| Research Group: | Ecology |
| Research Field: | Terrestrial ecology |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences |
| UTAS Author: | Ware, C (Mr Christopher Ware) |
| ID Code: | 105730 |
| Year Published: | 2015 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 16 |
| Deposited By: | Geography and Environmental Studies |
| Deposited On: | 2016-01-13 |
| Last Modified: | 2016-08-04 |
| Downloads: | 129 View Download Statistics |
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