Identifying Critical Thresholds in the Impacts of Invasive Alien Plants and Dune Paths on Native Coastal Dune Vegetation

Maria Carla de Francesco, Francesco Pio Tozzi, Gabriella Buffa, Edy Fantinato, Michele Innangi and Angela Stanisci ()
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Maria Carla de Francesco: EnvixLab, Department of Biosciences and Territory, University of Molise, Via Duca degli Abruzzi, 67, 86039 Termoli, Italy
Francesco Pio Tozzi: EnvixLab, Department of Biosciences and Territory, University of Molise, Via Duca degli Abruzzi, 67, 86039 Termoli, Italy
Gabriella Buffa: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, Via Torino, 155, 30172 Venice, Italy
Edy Fantinato: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, Via Torino, 155, 30172 Venice, Italy
Michele Innangi: EnvixLab, Department of Biosciences and Territory, University of Molise, Via Duca degli Abruzzi, 67, 86039 Termoli, Italy
Angela Stanisci: EnvixLab, Department of Biosciences and Territory, University of Molise, Via Duca degli Abruzzi, 67, 86039 Termoli, Italy

Land, 2022, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Invasive alien plants (IAP) pose a major threat to biodiversity and have a negative impact on the integrity and conservation status of plant communities. Mediterranean dunes are widely exposed to IAP, due to their environmental heterogeneity and the anthropogenic pressures to which they are subjected. The current study explored the possible existence of critical thresholds of IAP cover/abundance and dune path impacts that may cause the decline in diagnostic species cover in shifting and transition dunes. A random sampling of 126 plots in areas invaded and not invaded by IAP across the Italian Adriatic dunes has been used and the recorded species have been classified in ecological guilds. In order to explore the effect of plant community composition and distances from dune paths on the diagnostic species cover, a Random Forest regression model has been fitted. The results revealed that three main critical thresholds can be detected concerning IAP total cover, IAP Oenothera stucchii Soldano abundance and the distance from dune paths and they work differently in shifting and transition dunes. The identification of such cut-off points provides useful insights for an array of actions to preserve the biodiversity of the Mediterranean coastal dunes.

Keywords: invasive alien plants; shifting dunes; transition dunes; Adriatic coast; Oenothera stucchii; ecological guilds (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (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)

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