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Invasive herb Impatiens glandulifera has minimal impact on multiple components of temperate forest ecosystem function

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Abstract

Forests understories in Europe are known to generally resist invasion, though some alien plants do invade woodland communities. Here we focused on the impact of the widespread invasive annual Impatiens glandulifera, common along watercourses, but recently spreading in forests up to timberline. We investigated its impact on plant–soil feedback and ecosystem functioning. We recorded >40 variables focusing on: soil characteristics, including micro- and macro-nutrients; characteristics of litter layer and enzyme activity in litter; and richness and species composition of the forest understory. Three treatments were followed for 3 years: plots invaded by I. glandulifera; adjacent invader removal plots within the invaded area; and spatially separated uninvaded plots outside the invaded area. The effect of year-to-year variation was generally greater than that of the treatments, especially in soil and litter characteristics. Copper and boron were higher in invaded than invader removal and uninvaded plots, though in quantities that are unlikely to harm other plants. We found no effect of I. glandulifera on litter characteristics or enzyme activity. Despite almost 80% cover of I. glandulifera, we did not detect any difference in species richness and total vegetation cover between invaded and uninvaded plots. The floristic composition differed among the uninvaded, invader removal and invaded plots across 3 years. Our results indicate that the effect of I. glandulifera on the forest community studied was minor, and largely resulted from its increased shading to other plant species. In conclusion, we show how misleading the evaluation of impacts can be if based on a single season.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Zuzana Rumlerová, Matěj Man and Lukáš Vítek for their help in the field. This study was supported by the Praemium Academiae award to Petr Pyšek, project no. 14-36079G (Centre of Excellence PLADIAS) from the Czech Science Foundation, and long-term research development project no. RVO 67985939 from The Czech Academy of Sciences. JNB was partially supported by Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. We thank Martin Hejda, Jan Pergl and Tomáš Herben for advice on the statistical analyses and to Zuzana Sixtová for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Invasion Ecology, Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, 252 43, Průhonice, Czech Republic

    Jan Čuda, Michaela Vítková, Marie Albrechtová, Wen-Yong Guo & Petr Pyšek

  2. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 44, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jan Čuda & Petr Pyšek

  3. Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Jacob N. Barney

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  1. Jan Čuda
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Čuda, J., Vítková, M., Albrechtová, M. et al. Invasive herb Impatiens glandulifera has minimal impact on multiple components of temperate forest ecosystem function. Biol Invasions 19, 3051–3066 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1508-z

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