OPE02211 - Comprender el alcance y los impactos de

Unravelling the extent and impacts of plant invasion in the last pristine landscapes of Europe: linking monitoring and conservation management Invasive alien species are a significant threat to global biodiversity and negatively affect economies and human health. The introduction of plants and animals into new areas is typically associated with human actions, such as traffic or land management dispersing seeds of invasive plants allowing them to establish self-sustainable populations. When we think of these populations, we typically imagine one wide-spread plant or animal species, such as the Japanese knotweed or Asian hornet; but, in reality, several non-native species usually invade natural habitats simultaneously. Scientists have only recently focused on multiple invasions, and important questions remain: Once introduced into a new area, what factors determine the simultaneous spread and effect of invaders on native species? Is this spread accelerated under climate change, which increases the risk of extreme disturbances, such as fires, that facilitate invasion? Are species life-history traits, such as reproductive output, rapid growth, or dispersal potential, equally important in successful spread? Or are interactions with other invaders and native species, potentially facilitating invasions, more important? We propose to answer the above, and eventually more, questions by establishing a monitoring project of the spread of multiple invasive plant species in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine. This highly biodiverse region, home to Europe’s last great wilderness areas and to the greatest remaining old-growth and virgin forests, is experiencing increased levels of invasion by alien plant species into pristine habitats, including oldgrowth forests. We aim to assess the biotic (including species interactions) and abiotic (including increased floods/fires due to climate change) drivers and consequences of the spread of nine co-occurring invasive plant species through observational monitoring at different scales. First, at a local scale, we plan to integrate existing data on plant diversity from 100 plots established in different habitat types since 1996 with new data collection on species abundances, traits, and interactions, in the existing and 40 new plots. Second, at a regional scale, we aim to assess and project under different climate-change scenarios the co-occurrence patterns of invaders, which will allow us to address the regional impacts on different habitat types of local invasion dynamics. Lastly, at a global scale, we will integrate our data collection into the global Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN), providing key data for comparative analyses from an understudied part of the world. We expect that, after controlling for human actions, the plant traits which promote invasion will differ among habitat types, but that across habitats, increased disturbances will enable multiple invasion where invaders indirectly facilitate further invasions by altering local plant communities and soil properties. This project will help protect regional biodiversity, as conservation initiatives are in urgent need of evidence-based management of invasive species. It has great potential to be a foundation for a long-term project, as the necessary infrastructure and knowledge base (close collaboration with a local NGO and governmental institution) are already established.