High Impacts of Invasive Weed Lantana camara on Plant Community and Soil Physico-Chemical Properties across Habitat Types in Central Nepal

Author:

Paudel Chandra Kumari1,Tiwari Achyut1ORCID,Baniya Chitra Bahadur1,Shrestha Bharat Babu1ORCID,Jha Pramod Kumar1

Affiliation:

1. Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu 46000, Nepal

Abstract

Although the effects of invasive alien plants on natural ecosystems are well known, the effects of specific plant species can vary across habitat types and disturbance intensity. This study was carried out to analyze the effects of Lantana camara on associated vegetation and soil physico-chemical properties at invaded and non-invaded sites across three different habitat types (forest edge, fallow land, and roadside) in central Nepal. We sampled 50 pairs of 5 m × 5 m (for shrub species) and 1 m × 1 m (for herbs species) plots at invaded and non-invaded sites in each habitat and recorded community variables for each species within the sampling plots for both wet (monsoon) and dry (pre-monsoon) seasons. Further, we collected soil samples from each quadrat and determined the soil physico-chemical properties. We recorded 137 species of flowering plants (119 from non-invaded and 97 from invaded plots) and classified them in accordance with life form/habit. In invaded sites, we found a significant decline in species diversity as indicated by the Simpson and Shannon diversity indices. Specifically, L. camara reduced the species richness, Simpson index, and Shannon diversity index by 36.84%, 11.84%, and 40.21%, respectively. Soil nutrients such as total nitrogen, soil organic carbon, and available phosphorus were significantly higher in invaded sites than non-invaded ones except for available potassium and soil pH. This study provided evidence that Lantana L. camara has a substantial impact on the understory plant community assemblage and the physico-chemical properties of soil. The results suggest that the protection of native plant community requires management of L. camara by implementing appropriate measures.

Funder

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau of Food Security

Publisher

MDPI AG

Reference71 articles.

1. CBD (2008). Alien species that threaten ecosystems, habits or species. Convention on Biological Diversity, FAO. Report on Consultations Regarding International Standards.

2. Alien plant invasions and native plant extinctions: A six-threshold framework;Downey;AoB Plants,2016

3. Bellard, C., Cassey, P., and Blackburn, T.M. (2016). Alien species as a driver of recent extinction. Biol. Lett., 12.

4. Roy, H.E., Pauchard, A., Stoett, P., Renard Truong, T., Bacher, S., Galil, B.S., Hulme, P.E., Ikeda, T., Sankaran, K.V., and McGeoch, M.A. (2023). Summary for Policymakers of the Thematic Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and Their Control of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES Secretariat.

5. Invasive plants rapidly reshape soil properties in a grassland ecosystem;Gibbons;MSystems,2017

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3