The Alien Plants That Threaten South Africa’s Mountain Ecosystems

Kim Canavan, Susan Canavan, Vincent Ralph Clark, Onalenna Gwate, David Mark Richardson, Guy Frederick Sutton and Grant Douglas Martin
Additional contact information
Kim Canavan: Centre for Biological Control, Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa
Susan Canavan: Department of Invasion Ecology, Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, 25243 Průhonice, Czech Republic
Vincent Ralph Clark: Afromontane Research Unit and Department of Geography, University of the Free State, Phuthaditjhaba 9866, South Africa
Onalenna Gwate: Afromontane Research Unit and Department of Geography, University of the Free State, Phuthaditjhaba 9866, South Africa
David Mark Richardson: Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa
Guy Frederick Sutton: Centre for Biological Control, Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa
Grant Douglas Martin: Centre for Biological Control, Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: The six major mountain ranges in South Africa support critically important ecosystem services—notably water production—and are rich in biodiversity and endemism. These mountains are threatened by detrimental land uses, unsustainable use of natural resources, climate change, and invasive alien plants. Invasive alien plants pose substantial and rapidly increasing problems in mountainous areas worldwide. However, little is known about the extent of plant invasions in the mountains of South Africa. This study assessed the status of alien plants in South African mountains by determining sampling efforts, species compositions and abundances across the six ranges in lower-and higher-elevation areas. Species occurrence records were obtained from three databases that used various approaches (roadside surveys, citizen science observations, focused botanical surveys). Most mountain ranges were found to be undersampled, and species composition assessments were only possible for two ranges. The majority of abundant alien plants in both the lower- and higher-elevation areas were species with broad ecological tolerances and characterised by long distance seed dispersal. These prevalent species were mostly woody plants—particularly tree species in the genera Acacia, Pinus , and Prosopis —that are contributing to the trend of woody plant encroachment across South African mountains. We suggest improved mountain-specific surveys to create a database which could be used to develop management strategies appropriate for each mountain range.

Keywords: alien species; biological invasions; citizen science; elevation; species abundance; tree invasions; woody plant encroachment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/12/1393/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/12/1393/ (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:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:12:p:1393-:d:704022

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

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