Analysis and distributional patterns of the invasive flora in a protected mountain area - a case study of Medvednica Nature Park (Croatia)

Abstract

In this paper we have analysed invasive flora of Medvednica Nature Park, Croatia with respect to their origins, life forms, systematic positions, types of seed dispersal, Ellenberg indicator values and spatial distributions using MTB 1/64 grid units for analyses. A total of 27 invasive plant species, belonging to 14 families, were recorded with Asteraceae being the most frequently occurring family. Therophytes were the most common life form, as is generally true of Croatian invasive plants; however, hemicryptophytes and geophytes were more frequent in Medvednica. Here, invasive plants originated mainly from both Americas with slightly lower portion in comparison to all Croatian invasive plants, while contrary was the case when comparing those originated from Asia. The most widespread species was Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers., and the species with the lowest occurrence were Chamomilla suaveolens (Pursh.) Rydb and Datura innoxia Mill. A multiple regression model explains 44% of the spatial variability in the invasive plants data per MTB 1/64 unit, using the number of all recorded plant species, the average elevation and the lengths of paths and roads as estimators. The latter two variables also had the most influence on the ordination axes in analyses of the spatial distribution of seed dispersal types present in each MTB 1/64 unit. Anemochory was the most frequent type of seed dispersal.

Keywords

• invasive alien plants
• MTB grid
• dispersal strategy
• habitats
• RDA
• regression