Abstract
The water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is listed among the 100 worst invasive plants and was ranked as the 11th worst invasive species in Europe, being a threat to aquatic biodiversity and water-provision. Predicting species distribution is the first step to understanding niche suitability, forecasting the invasion impact and building resilience against this species. In this study, we used a potential distribution model to assess the global risk of water hyacinth invasion by overlapping maps of highly suitable areas for water hyacinth occurrence and areas of biological importance and water scarcity. The MaxEnt - Maximum Entropy algorithm was used in the construction of the model and included five global bioclimatic layers and one of urbanized areas. Among the variables used, occurrence is mainly explained by urban areas, highlighting the importance of cities as a source or dispersion mechanism of the water hyacinth. Global biodiversity hotspots are predominantly situated in high suitability regions for the species. Ramsar sites and global protected areas are at a lower risk level compared to hotspots; however, future climate change and urban growth scenarios could put these areas at higher risk for invasion. Threats posed by the water hyacinth are possibly more acute in regions suffering from current or chronic drought. The results suggest that niche models that do not consider anthropic variables may be underestimating potential distribution of invasive species. Furthermore, the ecological plasticity of the water hyacinth and its close association with cities increase the concern about the impact of this species on the environment and on water security.
Highlights
The water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a free-floating aquatic macrophyte in the Pontederiaceae family and originates from the Brazilian Amazon (EPPO, 2008)
There is currently no consensus on how and when this species was introduced into environments outside its natural habitat, but its use for ornamentation in lakes and gardens, as well as in controlling nutrients and algal blooms in eutrophic environments certainly contributed to its spread (Kriticos and Brunel, 2016).The water hyacinth is present on all continents, except Antarctica, having invaded more than 50 tropical and subtropical countries (EPPO, 2008)
E. crassipes is native to South America, only 22% of the occurrence records were on that continent, while North America accounted for about 48%, Oceania with 7.7% of the records, followed by Africa (6.1%), Europe (5.9%) and Asia (5.8%)
Summary
The water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a free-floating aquatic macrophyte in the Pontederiaceae family and originates from the Brazilian Amazon (EPPO, 2008). It reproduces both vegetatively, via ramets formed from axillary buds on stolons, and sexually through seed production (EPPO, 2008). E. crassipes colonizes still or slow-moving water bodies, such as estuarine habitats, lakes, urban areas, watercourses, and wetlands. It can tolerate water level fluctuation extremes and seasonal variations in flow velocity, as well as extremes of nutrient availability, pH, temperature and toxic substances (Gopal, 1987). According to Nentwig et al (2018), E. crassipes was ranked as the 11th worst invasive species in Europe
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