Research Paper

The incidence of alien species on the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity of lentic and lotic communities dominated by Phragmites australis (Cav.) Steud

¹ Department of Biology, University of Florence, via Micheli 1, 50121 Florence, Italy
² Natural History Museum, Botanical Collections, University of Florence, via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy
³ Department of Biology, University of Florence, via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Florence, Italy
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parma, Italy

^* Corresponding author: mariabeatrice.castellani@unifi.it

Received: 28 July 2021
Accepted: 6 January 2022

Abstract

This study aims to investigate, for the first time, the multiple diversity harbored in plant communities dominated by P. australis, discriminating between lentic and lotic habitats. We focused on the incidence of alien species on taxonomical, phylogenetic and functional diversity. Although it was hypothesized that ecological differences between habitats (lentic vs. lotic) could lead to plant adaptive trade-offs, results showed that the P. australis dominance affected overall plant diversity in the same way in both target habitats. Similarly, the two compared habitats hosted a similar alien species richness and relative abundance. Different results were observed based on whether the alien species richness or their relative abundance were considered regarding the incidence of alien species. Increasing alien species richness in lentic habitats resulted in increased taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity. Instead, in lotic habitats, it promoted a decrease in taxonomic and functional diversity. In contrast, the increase in the relative abundance of alien species resulted in increased taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity in both habitats. Choosing relative abundance vs richness of aliens in lotic stands can have a different impact in evaluating the effect of aliens on various components of diversity.