Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1007/s10530-021-02509-4
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Functional diversity changes in native and alien urban flora over three centuries
Author Milanović, M.; Kühn, I. ORCID logo ; Pyšek, P.; Knapp, S.
Source Titel Biological Invasions
Year 2021
Department BZF; iDiv
Volume 23
Issue 7
Page From 2337
Page To 2353
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12826
Supplements https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1007%2Fs10530-021-02509-4/MediaObjects/10530_2021_2509_MOESM1_ESM.docx
Keywords Archaeophytes; Functional diversity; Functional traits; Invasive species; Neophytes; Time series; Urbanization
UFZ wide themes ESCALATE;
Abstract Alien species in urban areas have a large effect on overall species diversity. A suitable metric of flora’s response to environmental change is functional diversity (FD) that refers to the multivariate space of species’ trait compositions, reflecting their ecological niches. We studied how FD changed over 320 years of urbanization in the city of Halle (Saale), Germany. Selected functional traits (related to stress-tolerance, reproduction, competitiveness and phenology) were examined for the difference in FD between native and alien plant species, the latter specifically for archaeophytes, neophytes and invasive species. Functional diversity for each trait was calculated using Rao’s Q index followed by a linear model to test for changes in Rao’s Q over time between the groups. Over the 320 years, overall FD remained constant despite species turnover, but FD significantly increased for neophytes and invasive species compared to native species. Plant height was the only trait showing increase in FD as main effect, while for the other traits examined FD decreased over time. Considering invasive species separately, the majority of traits exhibit a significant increase in FD except for seed mass where it decreased. Finally, FD of multiple functional traits combined decreased over time. This can be due to homogenization of functional trait between native and alien species, as a consequence of habitats becoming more similar and subsequent habitat filtering. Our results demonstrate that during the last three centuries, urbanization influenced plant FD in various ways and may contribute to future uniformity of urban floras and greater invasiveness.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=24514
Milanović, M., Kühn, I., Pyšek, P., Knapp, S. (2021):
Functional diversity changes in native and alien urban flora over three centuries
Biol. Invasions 23 (7), 2337 - 2353 10.1007/s10530-021-02509-4