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ToolsQuirino, Ana Maria Siqueira, Peres, Carlos A., Tabarelli, Marcelo and Filgueiras, Bruno K. C. (2025) Invasive plants contribute to arrested succession in highly disturbed tropical dry forests: A field experiment in the Brazilian Caatinga. Journal of Arid Environments, 228. ISSN 0140-1963
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Dry forests have been historically modified by multiple human disturbances resulting in a mosaic of forest areas with different successional stages embedded within anthropogenic landscapes. Anthropogenic drivers, such as the spread of invasive species, can favour the establishment of alternative successional trajectories in regenerating dry forests, thereby shifting communities into a novel functional and structural composition. Here, we use a randomized complete block factorial field experiment to assess the role of invasive plant species and nutrient enrichment in the community-level attributes of native plants in a regenerating forest stand of Caatinga dry forest, northeastern Brazil. We sampled 48 3 × 3 m plots corresponding to eight treatments showing different levels of exotic grass invasion and nutrient input (NPK). Our results show that plant assemblages were impoverished and dominated by a few species of herbs, shrubs and subshrubs indicating a scenario of arrested succession. We demonstrate cross-treatment differences in community-level attributes of native plants with most exclusive plant species restricted to treatments with low presence of invasive species. The number of rare native species declined with increasing invader cover, while native plant species richness increased. However, this positive effect of invasive species on total species richness was associated with the proliferation of native grass, herbs and shrubs. Our findings show the important role of both high densities of an invasive grass species and land-use history on native plant assemblages, with drastic impoverishment in terms of tree species, which clearly indicates a scenario of arrested succession.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Data availability: Data will be made available on request. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | alternative states,biological invasion,dry forests,fertilization experiment,succession,ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics,ecology,earth-surface processes ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1105 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Apr 2026 15:30 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Apr 2026 15:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102703 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2025.105341 |
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