Climate change amplifies plant invasion hotspots in Nepal
Article
Article Title | Climate change amplifies plant invasion hotspots in Nepal |
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ERA Journal ID | 3225 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Shrestha, Uttam Babu (Author) and Shrestha, Bharat Babu (Author) |
Journal Title | Diversity and Distributions |
Journal Citation | 25, pp. 1599-1612 |
Number of Pages | 14 |
Year | 2019 |
Publisher | John Wiley & Sons |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 1366-9516 |
1472-4642 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.27257r3. |
Web Address (URL) | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14724642 |
Abstract |
Climate change has increased the risk of biological invasions, particularly by increasing the climatically suitable regions for invasive alien species. The distribution of many native and invasive species has been predicted to change under future climate. We performed species distribution modelling of invasive alien plants (IAPs) to identify hotspots under current and future climate scenarios in Nepal, a country ranked among the most vulnerable countries to biological invasions and climate change in the world. Nepal. We predicted climatically suitable niches of 24 out of the total 26 reported IAPs in Nepal under current and future climate (2050 for RCP 6.0) using an ensemble of species distribution models. We also conducted hotspot analysis to highlight the geographic hotspots for IAPs in different climatic zones, land cover, ecoregions, physiography and federal states. Under future climate, climatically suitable regions for 75% of IAPs will expand in contrast to a contraction of the climatically suitable regions for the remaining 25% of the IAPs. A high proportion of the modelled suitable niches of IAPs occurred on agricultural lands followed by forests. In aggregation, both extent and intensity (invasion hotspots) of the climatically suitable regions for IAPs will increase in Nepal under future climate scenarios. The invasion hotspots will expand towards the high‐elevation mountainous regions. In these regions, land use is rapidly transforming due to the development of infrastructure and expansion of tourism and trade. Negative impacts on livelihood, biodiversity and ecosystem services, as well as economic loss caused by IAPs in the future, may be amplified if preventive and control measures are not immediately initiated. Therefore, the management of IAPs in Nepal should account for the vulnerability of climate change‐induced biological invasions into new areas, primarily in the mountains. |
Keywords | Invasive species, Nepal,Climate change |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 310305. Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) |
410406. Natural resource management | |
410401. Conservation and biodiversity | |
410404. Environmental management | |
Byline Affiliations | Institute for Life Sciences and the Environment |
Tribhuvan University, Nepal | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q5504/climate-change-amplifies-plant-invasion-hotspots-in-nepal
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