Abstract
Lantana camara, a native plant from tropical America, is considered one of the most harmful invasive species worldwide. Several studies have identified potentially invasible areas under scenarios of global change, on the assumption that niche is conserved during the invasion process. Recent studies, however, suggest that many invasive plants do not conserve their niches. Using Principal Components Analyses (PCA), we tested the hypothesis of niche conservatism for L. camara by comparing its native niche in South America with its expressed niche in Africa, Australia and India. Using MaxEnt, the estimated niche for the native region was projected onto each invaded region to generate potential distributions there. Our results demonstrate that while L. camara occupied subsets of its original native niche in Africa and Australia, in India its niche shifted significantly. There, 34% of the occurrences were detected in warmer habitats nonexistent in its native range. The estimated niche for India was also projected onto Africa and Australia to identify other vulnerable areas predicted from the observed niche shift detected in India. As a result, new potentially invasible areas were identified in central Africa and southern Australia. Our findings do not support the hypothesis of niche conservatism for the invasion of L. camara. The mechanisms that allow this species to expand its niche need to be investigated in order to improve our capacity to predict long-term geographic changes in the face of global climatic changes.
Highlights
The West Indian Lantana, Lantana camara L., is considered among the most harmful invasive species in the world [1,2]
In India, the shift on the highest density of occurrences surpasses the limits of the native niche (Figure 2 a), while in Africa and Australia, this shift occurs within these limits (Figures 2 b and c, respectively)
For the first time the hypothesis of niche conservatism is evaluated for the L. camara invasion
Summary
The West Indian Lantana, Lantana camara L., is considered among the most harmful invasive species in the world [1,2]. Mechanical and chemical management are currently used for the eradication and control of L. camara. These options, are often costly and inefficient because invaded areas tend to be vast with limited access [6,7]. Biological control agents seem insufficient for reducing the abundance of L. camara to manageable levels As with many invasive plant species, prevention is the first recommendation to limit the expansion of L. camara. The efficient implementation of preventive actions to stop the arrival and establishment of invasive species relies on the correct identification of potentially suitable areas
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