RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Road edge effect and elevation patterns of native and alien plants on an oceanic island (Tenerife, Canary Islands) A1 Otto, Rüdiger A1 Arteaga, Manuel A. A1 Delgado, Juan Domingo A1 Arévalo, José Ramón A1 Blandino, Cristina A1 Fernández-Palacios, José María K1 Island scrublands K1 Oceanic islands K1 Roadside assemblages K1 Isla de matorrales K1 Islas oceánicas AB We studied road edge effects on floristic composition and richness of alienand native plants on five zonal ecosystems, following a steep altitudinal gradient fromarid coastal and mid-elevation scrublands, through laurel and pine forests, to summitscrub, on Tenerife (Canary Islands). We analyzed vegetation within transects runningfrom the road edge to the core of natural habitats. Alien richness significantly decreasedwith distance to road edge for most ecosystems. Native richness also decreased withincreasing road distance for the coastal scrub and pine forest, but increased for thethermophilous scrub.We found a decrease in both native and alien species richness withelevation. Our results suggest that road edge effects in alien plant invasion are strongerin native shrub communities at low elevations than in forests (laurel and Canary Islandpine forest), where aliens were limited to a narrow road edge band. Detrended correspondenceanalyses showed that road edge plots were floristically very different frominterior plots and that each ecosystem harboured a specific alien assemblage with fewspecies present in more than one ecosystem, suggesting a marked species turnover ofroadside alien species across altitudinal belts up to the pine forest. However, at highelevations, very few aliens invaded roadsides, probably due to harsh environmentalconditions and still relatively low propagule pressure. PB Springer SN 1211-9520 YR 2014 FD 2014 LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/16439 UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/16439 LA en DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna RD 19-dic-2024