Abstract Detail

Conservation Biology

Davis, III, Charles C. [1], Willis, Charles [2], Ruhfel, Brad R [1], Primack, Richard [3], Miller-Rushing, Abraham [4], Losos, Jonathan [5].

Favorable climate change response explains non-native species' success in Thoreau’s woods.

Invasive species have tremendous negative ecological and economic impacts. Climate change may exacerbate species invasions, especially if non-native species share traits that allow them to respond more favorably to changing climates. Furthermore, examining non-native species response to climate change using a phylogenetic framework can provide important evolutionary and ecological insights into non-native species success and shed light on the utility of phylogeny as a tool for predicting future naturalizations and invasions. The extent to which non-native species, and invasives in particular, however, exhibit a phylogenetic pattern that is also correlated with their ability to respond to climate change more favorably has yet to be examined across an entire community. Using a unique historical record initiated by the conservationist Henry David Thoreau that includes 556 species from the flora of Concord, Massachusetts (USA), we show that non-native species status and species’ ability to adjust their annual flowering time in response to seasonal temperature variation are correlated and phylogenetically conserved (i.e., groups of closely related species share a similar status and phenological response). Invasive status and the ability to shift mean first flowering day earlier over the past century are also correlated, but are not phylogenetically conserved. These results demonstrate for the first time that climate change has played, and may continue to play, an important role in shaping the pattern of non-native species naturalization and invasion.

Broader Impacts:

1 - Harvard University, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, 22 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
2 - Duke University, Department of Biology, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
3 - Boston University, Department of Biology, 5 Cummington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, USA
4 - USA National Phenology Network, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA
5 - Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Cambridge, MA, 02138

Keywords:
climate change
phenology
phylogeny
Invasive Species
Conservation.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 52
Location: 551A/Convention Center
Date: Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Time: 11:30 AM
Number: 52006
Abstract ID:730