The Biogeography of Invasive Plants in the Continental United States

美国大陆入侵植物的生物地理学

• 批准号: 1560925
• 负责人: Bethany Bradley
• 金额: $ 15.74万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-06-01 至 2019-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1560925&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Biogeography; Invasive; Plants; Continental; United

Invasive plants are species introduced by humans to new parts of the world where they not only survive but thrive in novel habitats. Although many individual invasive plants have been studied extensively, basic understanding of the biogeography of invasive plants as a broader group remains limited. This research project will analyze and project the geographies of invasive plants in their non-native ranges within the continental U.S. The investigators will compare the geographic traits of invasive species to those of non-native species that are established but are not known to be spreading or negatively affecting natural systems. Project results will enhance fundamental knowledge of unique biogeographical patterns of invasive plants in their non-native range; knowledge that is critical for forecasting invasion risk. The project will provide new insights regarding how geography influences the factors affecting the spread of new species into ecosystems in the invaded range, including identifying "hot spots" of future invasion risk. The investigators will create spatially explicit invasion risk models for the nation to guide policy and management, and they will produce state-level "watch lists" of invasive plants likely to become problematic under potential future climate conditions. The project also will contribute to improved education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields through graduate training and expansion of undergraduate participation in research.Invasive species have been identified as one of five prominent threats to global ecosystems by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Despite the prominence of the problem, there is a paucity of basic scientific understanding regarding what sets these species apart, especially why invasive species are invasive. Considerable effort has gone into addressing this question through ecological studies, but relatively few researchers have focused on understanding the geography of invasive species. Invasive plant research tends to be biased towards a handful of very well-studied species, which inhibits understand of invasion patterns more generally. Furthermore, lumping invasive and established species together conflates the influence of human introduction with the influence of biology on the geographic distributions of invasions, thereby hindering identification of patterns characteristic of invasives. This project will focus on evaluating the validity of answers to two core sets of questions: (1) For non-native plants in the continental U.S., how does non-native range geography differ for plants that are established vs. those that are invasive? (2) What is the current geography of establishment and invasion risk across the U.S., and how might they shift with changing climatic conditions? The investigators will use occurrence records for invasive plants compiled from museum and management records to model potential distribution for all 1,000 invasive plants under current and projected future climate conditions. This analysis will enable creation of a spatially explicit model of "hot spots" of future invasion risk across the continental U.S.

入侵植物是由人类引入世界新地区的物种，它们不仅在那里生存，而且在新的栖息地茁壮成长。尽管许多入侵植物个体已被广泛研究，但对入侵植物作为一个更广泛群体的生物地理学的基本认识仍然有限。该研究项目将分析和预测美国大陆外来入侵植物的地理特征。研究人员将比较外来入侵物种的地理特征和外来入侵物种的地理特征，这些外来入侵物种已经建立，但已知不会传播或对自然系统产生负面影响。项目成果将增强对外来入侵植物独特生物地理格局的基本认识；对预测入侵风险至关重要的知识。该项目将提供关于地理如何影响影响新物种向入侵范围内生态系统传播的因素的新见解，包括确定未来入侵风险的“热点”。研究人员将为国家创建空间上明确的入侵风险模型，以指导政策和管理，他们将制作国家级的入侵植物“观察名单”，这些植物在未来潜在的气候条件下可能会产生问题。该项目还将通过研究生培训和扩大本科生参与研究，为改善科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的教育做出贡献。入侵物种已被千年生态系统评估确定为全球生态系统的五大威胁之一。尽管这个问题很突出，但对于是什么使这些物种与众不同，特别是为什么入侵物种是入侵的，人们缺乏基本的科学理解。在通过生态学研究来解决这个问题上已经付出了相当大的努力，但相对较少的研究人员关注于了解入侵物种的地理。入侵植物研究往往偏向于少数研究得很好的物种，这阻碍了对入侵模式的更普遍理解。此外，将入侵物种和现有物种混为一谈，将人类引入的影响与生物学对入侵物种地理分布的影响混为一谈，从而阻碍了对入侵物种特征模式的识别。该项目将重点评估两个核心问题的答案的有效性：(1)对于美国大陆的非本地植物，非本地范围的地理位置对已建立的植物和入侵的植物有何不同？(2)美国目前的建立和入侵风险的地理位置是什么？它们如何随着气候条件的变化而变化？研究人员将使用从博物馆和管理记录中收集的入侵植物的发生记录来模拟所有1000种入侵植物在当前和预计的未来气候条件下的潜在分布。这一分析将有助于在美国大陆建立未来入侵风险“热点”的空间明确模型