Authors: García-Robledo, Carlos¹; Murcia, Carolina²

Source: Biological Invasions, Volume 7, Number 3, May 2005 , pp. 405-415(11)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

Chinese ash (Fraxinus chinensis) is an exotic tree species that has been used in non-commercial monospecific plantations for revegetation programs in the Central Andes of Colombia. At the Otún river watershed, these plantations occur in patches intermixed with old pastures, oak forests, and successional forests. In this heterogeneous landscape, the ash has been able to invade some of its surrounding habitats. This study evaluates the invasion patterns of ash to each of these habitats and experimentally quantifies seed and seedling survivorship and seedling growth as three processes that could determine ash establishment. Of the four habitats examined, old pastures were the most vulnerable to invasion, followed by oak plantations, and successional forest. Ash plantations exhibited recruitment levels intermediate between pastures and oak plantations. Abandoned pastures showed the highest seed germination, seedling survivorship, and seedling growth. In the ash plantations, recruitment seemed negatively affected by the low number of germinated seeds, high mortality of seedlings, and low growth. Invasion in oak plantations was constrained by high seed mortality and burial of seedlings by leaf litter, although the seedlings that did survive grew fast and produced a high number of leaves. Within the successional forest, Chinese ash seeds germinated but establishment was constrained by a reduced seedling survivorship and low growth. This research offers new evidence of how different processes affecting the establishment of an invader may differ among landscape elements, and it also yields important information for the management and control of ash in these Andean landscapes.

Keywords: Colombia; Fraxinus chinensis; invasive plants; landscape invasion; seed germination; seedling survivorship; tropical cloud forest

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10530-004-2576-4

Affiliations: 1: Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, 33124-0421, USA, Email: carlos@bio.miami.edu 2: Colombia Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Apartado, 25527, Cali, Colombia,

Publication date: 2005-05-01

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• By this author: García-Robledo, Carlos ;  Murcia, Carolina

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