Abstract
Abstract. Mikania micrantha is one of the major invasive alien plant species in tropical moist forest regions of Asia including Nepal. Recently, this weed is spreading at an alarming rate in Chitwan National Park (CNP) and threatening biodiversity. This paper aims to assess the impacts of Mikania micrantha on different land cover and to predict potential invasion sites in CNP using Maxent model. Primary data for this were presence point coordinates and perceived Mikania micrantha cover collected through systematic random sampling technique. Rapideye image, Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission data and bioclimatic variables were acquired as secondary data. Mikania micrantha distribution maps were prepared by overlaying the presence points on image classified by object based image analysis. The overall accuracy of classification was 90 % with Kappa coefficient 0.848. A table depicting the number of sample points in each land cover with respective Mikania micrantha coverage was extracted from the distribution maps to show the impact. The riverine forest was found to be the most affected land cover with 85.98 % presence points and sal forest was found to be very less affected with only 17.02 % presence points. Maxent modeling predicted the areas near the river valley as the potential invasion sites with statistically significant Area Under the Receiver Operating Curve (AUC) value of 0.969. Maximum temperature of warmest month and annual precipitation were identified as the predictor variables that contribute the most to Mikania micrantha's potential distribution.
Highlights
Species invasion is profoundly altering communities and ecosystems worldwide (Gurevitch and Padilla, 2004)
This paper has assessed the impacts of Mikania micrantha on land cover and predicted the potential invasion sites in Chitwan National Park (CNP) through Maxent modeling successfully
This research aimed to provide a brief overview of the extent to which Mikania micrantha can invade the national park if no intervention is applied
Summary
Species invasion is profoundly altering communities and ecosystems worldwide (Gurevitch and Padilla, 2004). Invasive alien species (IAS) is an alien species, which becomes established in natural or seminatural ecosystems or habitat, an agent of change, and threatens native biological diversity (IUCN, 2000). This paper encompasses Mikania micrantha which is an invasive alien plant species (IAPS). Mikania micrantha (commonly known as Mile-a-minute weed) is a native of Central and South America (“Global Invasive Species Database,” 2014). It is one of the major IAPS in many tropical moist forest regions of Asia including Nepal. 21 species have been considered important with various levels of impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems under which Mikania micrantha is serious invasive alien plant species disrupting forests and shrublands. Known as Lahare banmara in Nepal, it is one of the “High Risk
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