Relationships between driving factors and invasibility of multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora Thunb.), a non-native invasive plant in Missouri

摘要

Non-native invasive plants (NNIP) are rapidly spreading into natural ecosystems (e.g., forests, grasslands) aided by the perpetual change of land use patterns in the modern age. Potential threats of NNIP to natural ecosystems include biodiversity loss, structural and environmental change, habitat degradation, and economic losses. The U.S. Forest Service, Northern Research Station Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) collects data on forest structure and composition and selected measures of ecosystem health from the Plains States to the Atlantic coast. Included in this data collection is the presence and cover of NNIP. The program initially (2005-2006) collected data on 25 different species on 100 percent of the plots in 11 Midwestern states.Later (2007 and afterwards), the inventory was expanded to 43 species and 24 states, but reduced to approximately 20 percent of the plots inventoried in a given year. These data, combined with the forest inventory data, provide a unique opportunity to examine the presence and extent of NNIP and relate them to forest characteristics that may encourage or inhibit their presence.