Abstract
The paper presents the results of several years investigations (2003-2007) on two invaders: the Himalayans <em>Impatiens glandulifera</em> and Asiatic <em>Reynoutria japonica</em>. The Sudety Mountains and their national parks are under strong pressure of both species, threatening the local vegetation. The four-year investigations have been carried out in field, glasshouse and in laboratory. Invasive species have their peculiar life histories which help them to occupy new areas. Those are above all the specific generative reproduction strategies (<em>Impatiens</em>) or vegetative reproduction strategies (<em>Reynoutria</em>). Both strategies secure the reproductive success and to capture more and more highly situated areas of the mountains. Very significant characteristics connected with the expansion of invaders is the excessively over and above the average production of seeds (<em>Impatiens</em>) and a huge annual increment aboveground biomass (<em>Reynoutria</em>). The investigated invasive species are probably not equipped with influence of allelopatic type as of greater importance is their competitive strength. The invaders can eliminate a part of the early spring flora belonging to the geophyte group and impoverish the regional biological diversity. Both the invasive plants enter also into some moist mountain forest communities.
Highlights
Biological invasions by non-native species have become a major environmental problem and a focus of ecological research (Crawley 1985; Mooney and Drake 1986; Di Castri et al 1989; Drake et al 1986; De Wall et al 1994; Crank and Fuller 1995; Brock et al 1997; Starfinger et al 1998; Nentwig 2007)
The mentioned papers include data on biology of the most aggressive invaders: the species of Reynoutria japonica s.l. of Japanese origin, and the Asian Impatiens glandulifera. In these articles discussed are several hypotheses generalizing the issue of invasiveness and their application to local ecological conditions
We tried to answer the recently put question by the Canadian ecologists (MacDougall and Turkington 2005): are invasive species the drivers or passengers of change in degraded ecosystems? We analyzed some of the hypotheses on reasons of success of invasive plants in the Sudety Mts
Summary
Biological invasions by non-native species have become a major environmental problem and a focus of ecological research (Crawley 1985; Mooney and Drake 1986; Di Castri et al 1989; Drake et al 1986; De Wall et al 1994; Crank and Fuller 1995; Brock et al 1997; Starfinger et al 1998; Nentwig 2007). Our previous studies carried out in the Sudety (Fabiszewski and Kwiatkowski 2001; Fabiszewski and Brej 2005, 2007) indicated a direct influence of invasive species on the decline of biological variability in local phytocenoses. The mentioned papers include data on biology of the most aggressive invaders: the species of Reynoutria japonica s.l. of Japanese origin, and the Asian Impatiens glandulifera. In these articles discussed are several hypotheses generalizing the issue of invasiveness and their application to local ecological conditions. Because of lack of data we could not take a position on the interesting view of Pyek and Richardson (2007), which combines the concentration and migration of invaders with time of their arrival and residence time
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