Abstract
Aim
Invasive species provide an opportunity to study biogeography in action, allowing us to observe how species adapt and fill their environmental niche when introduced to new ecological settings. Here we use sea spurge—a foredune specialist plant species native to Europe which has recently spread across Australia’s southern coasts—as a model system to explore species' environmental niches adaptations and potential for future spread following introduction outside their native range.
Location
Europe and Australia.
Taxon
Sea spurge, Euphorbia paralias, Euphorbiaceae.
Methods
We compiled presence-absence data of E. paralias from >190,000 vegetation surveys in the native and invaded range. We combined presence-absence data with information on climate, soil, coastal morphology and human pressure, to test whether E. paralias’ environmental niche has shifted following invasion and used species distributions models (SDMs) to map its invasion potential under current and future climatic conditions.
Results
The environmental niche of E. paralias has shifted since reaching Australia, expanding into areas further away from people, closer to the shoreline and with higher temperatures. SDMs revealed that alongside broad-scale gradients in temperature and rainfall, the distribution of E. paralias is also constrained by soil substrate and dune morphology—highlighting the importance of these fine-scale drivers in shaping invasion dynamics in coastal environments. Moreover, SDMs suggest that future expansion in Australia will result from continued niche filling, not changes in climatic suitability.
Main conclusions
Despite its impressive dispersal ability, E. paralias has not yet reached equilibrium in its invaded range and is likely to continue to expand its distribution in Australia regardless of climate change. E. paralias’ key to success has been its ability to suit novel environments. We provide one of the first examples of how to leverage distribution data and SDMs to test hypotheses about niche conservatism and expansion in coastal dune invasive plant species.
Invasive species provide an opportunity to study biogeography in action, allowing us to observe how species adapt and fill their environmental niche when introduced to new ecological settings. Here we use sea spurge—a foredune specialist plant species native to Europe which has recently spread across Australia’s southern coasts—as a model system to explore species' environmental niches adaptations and potential for future spread following introduction outside their native range.
Location
Europe and Australia.
Taxon
Sea spurge, Euphorbia paralias, Euphorbiaceae.
Methods
We compiled presence-absence data of E. paralias from >190,000 vegetation surveys in the native and invaded range. We combined presence-absence data with information on climate, soil, coastal morphology and human pressure, to test whether E. paralias’ environmental niche has shifted following invasion and used species distributions models (SDMs) to map its invasion potential under current and future climatic conditions.
Results
The environmental niche of E. paralias has shifted since reaching Australia, expanding into areas further away from people, closer to the shoreline and with higher temperatures. SDMs revealed that alongside broad-scale gradients in temperature and rainfall, the distribution of E. paralias is also constrained by soil substrate and dune morphology—highlighting the importance of these fine-scale drivers in shaping invasion dynamics in coastal environments. Moreover, SDMs suggest that future expansion in Australia will result from continued niche filling, not changes in climatic suitability.
Main conclusions
Despite its impressive dispersal ability, E. paralias has not yet reached equilibrium in its invaded range and is likely to continue to expand its distribution in Australia regardless of climate change. E. paralias’ key to success has been its ability to suit novel environments. We provide one of the first examples of how to leverage distribution data and SDMs to test hypotheses about niche conservatism and expansion in coastal dune invasive plant species.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 378-390 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Journal of Biogeography |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 24 Jan 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank John K. Scott for his insights into the invasion of in Australia, as well as Úna Fitz Patrick of the Irish National Biodiversity Data Centre, Emiliano Agrillo from Sapienza University and independent researchers John Rodwell and Patrice De Ruffray for providing field data to the European Vegetation Archive (EVA). We also acknowledge Australia’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) for making distribution records available through the AEKOS data portal. No other permits were needed to carry out the study. S. Giulio and L. Cao Pinna were supported by PhD fellowship from Roma Tre University, M. Carboni by a Rita Levi Montalcini Grant, MIUR Italy, F. Marzialetti by PhD fellowship from the University of Molise, and T. Jucker by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/S01537X/1). We also acknowledge the Grant of Excellence Departments, MIUR Italy (article 1, subsection 314–337, law 232/2016). E. paralias
Funding Information:
We thank John K. Scott for his insights into the invasion of in Australia, as well as Úna Fitz Patrick of the Irish National Biodiversity Data Centre, Emiliano Agrillo from Sapienza University, and independent researchers John Rodwell and Patrice De Ruffray for providing field data to the European Vegetation Archive (EVA). We also acknowledge Australia’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) for making distribution records available through the AEKOS data portal. No other permits were needed to carry out the study. S. Giulio and L. Cao Pinna were supported by PhD fellowship from Roma Tre University, M. Carboni by a Rita Levi Montalcini Grant, MIUR Italy, F. Marzialetti by PhD fellowship from University of Molise, and T. Jucker by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/S01537X/1). We also acknowledge the Grant of Excellence Departments, MIUR Italy (article 1, subsection 314–337, law 232/2016). E. paralias
Funding Information:
We thank John K. Scott for his insights into the invasion of E. paralias in Australia, as well as ?na Fitz Patrick of the Irish National Biodiversity Data Centre, Emiliano Agrillo from Sapienza University and independent researchers John Rodwell and Patrice De Ruffray for providing field data to the European Vegetation Archive (EVA). We also acknowledge Australia?s Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) for making distribution records available through the AEKOS data portal. No other permits were needed to carry out the study. S. Giulio and L. Cao Pinna were supported by PhD fellowship from Roma Tre University, M. Carboni by a Rita Levi Montalcini Grant, MIUR Italy, F. Marzialetti by PhD fellowship from the University of Molise, and T. Jucker by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/S01537X/1). We also acknowledge the Grant of Excellence Departments, MIUR Italy (article 1, subsection 314?337, law 232/2016).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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