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How much do we know about distribution and ecology of naturalized and invasive alien plant species? A case study from subtropical southern Brazil

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Abstract

Megadiverse tropical and subtropical countries may be especially at risk from exotic species invasions. However, for these regions, the number of studies on invasive species is low. This paper aims at synthesizing knowledge on the alien herbaceous and shrub flora in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil, considering both presence of alien species in different vegetation types and availability of trait data. Our database is an extensive list of different studies that present vegetation data or species lists in the state. Trait data was gathered from a large number of sources. Only a small portion of alien plants was found with higher frequency in the analyzed studies, some of them species considered to be invasive. However, the data set available for our study clearly is biased towards well-conserved vegetation, and vegetation types that likely contain larger proportions of alien species have been poorly studied. On the basis of the existing data, it is impossible to assess impact of the large majority of the species considered to be invasive. Ordination analysis of alien species described by traits revealed no clear set of traits associated to species that are considered to be invasive, even though some broad patterns became obvious: C4 grasses of African origin, a group that includes several invasive species, were separated from the large majority of species, and very few invasives are among the large group of European forbs. Overall, we conclude that lack of data is a serious impediment to an evaluation of the risk posed by invasive species for the study region.

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Acknowledgments

We thank members of the Laboratory of Grassland Vegetation (Dept. of Botany, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul—UFRGS) and of the Laboratory of Quantitative Ecology (Dept. of Ecology, UFRGS), especially Valério DePatta Pillar, for discussion. Comments by two anonymous reviewers improved a previous version of this manuscript. This study was developed in the context of Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) projects 563271/2010-8 and 478742/2012-6. RGR received a scholarship by CNPq (process nr. 106575/2011-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Studies in Grassland Vegetation, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Rosângela Gonçalves Rolim & Gerhard Ernst Overbeck

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Botânica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Rosângela Gonçalves Rolim & Gerhard Ernst Overbeck

  3. Faculdade de Biociências, PUCRS - Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Pedro Maria Abreu de Ferreira

  4. Universidade Federal do Pampa, São Gabriel, RS, Brazil

    Angelo Alberto Schneider

  5. Department of Botany, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Gerhard Ernst Overbeck

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  1. Rosângela Gonçalves Rolim
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  2. Pedro Maria Abreu de Ferreira
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  3. Angelo Alberto Schneider
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  4. Gerhard Ernst Overbeck
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Correspondence to Gerhard Ernst Overbeck.

Appendices

Appendix 1

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Table 2 Alien species found with higher frequency (more than three studies) in different vegetation types in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
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Appendix 2

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Table 3 List of naturalized species in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, considered in this study
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Rolim, R.G., de Ferreira, P.M.A., Schneider, A.A. et al. How much do we know about distribution and ecology of naturalized and invasive alien plant species? A case study from subtropical southern Brazil. Biol Invasions 17, 1497–1518 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-014-0811-1

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