Invasive Milk Thistle ( Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn.) Causes Habitat Homogenization and Affects the Spatial Distribution of Vegetation in the Semi-Arid Regions of Northern Pakistan

Nasrullah Khan, Rafi Ullah, Kishwar Ali, David Aaron Jones and Muhammad Ezaz Hasan Khan
Additional contact information
Nasrullah Khan: Department of Botany, University of Malakand Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 18800, Pakistan
Rafi Ullah: Department of Botany, University of Malakand Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 18800, Pakistan
Kishwar Ali: College of General Education, University of Doha for Science and Technology/College of the North Atlantic, Qatar Doha 24449, Qatar
David Aaron Jones: College of Health Sciences, University of Doha for Science and Technology/College of the North, Doha 24449, Qatar
Muhammad Ezaz Hasan Khan: College of General Education, University of Doha for Science and Technology/College of the North Atlantic, Qatar Doha 24449, Qatar

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: Global biodiversity management is of concern due to invasive plant species that dramatically disturb the native communities causing biological homogenization. Therefore, the present research investigated the impacts of Silybum marianum , an aggressive invasive alien species, on communities’ diversity and environmental variables in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Phytosociological characteristics and diversity indices of the communities were sampled in seventy-five sites using the quadrate method. These sites were categorized based on invasion intensities, i.e., fully invaded sites with a 100% importance value index of the selected species, severely invaded sites with >60% of IVI, and partially invaded sites with >30% of the chosen species. The community composition significantly changes with changes in invasion intensity. Similarly, S. marianum invasion has a pronounced impact on the community’s diversity showing significant differences among the three categorized groups ( p < 0.05). The canonical correspondence analysis revealed 29.9% variance where soil texture, nutrients, and elevations were influential variables in maintaining the community’s structure and composition. The study concludes that S. marianum dominated well-established communities in the existing soil and environmental variables; therefore, it was found to be influential in disturbing the native communities and may severely harm the crop plant and agricultural system in the future.

Keywords: alien invasive species; Silybum marianum; environmental variables; vegetation structure; spatial distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/5/687/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/5/687/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:5:p:687-:d:813843

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().