Modeling Hawaiian ecosystem degradation due to invasive plants under current and future climates.

ABSTRACT: Occupation of native ecosystems by invasive plant species alters their structure and/or function. In Hawaii, a subset of introduced plants is regarded as extremely harmful due to competitive ability, ecosystem modification, and biogeochemical habitat degradation. By controlling this subset of highly invasive ecosystem modifiers, conservation managers could significantly reduce native ecosystem degradation. To assess the invasibility of vulnerable native ecosystems, we selected a proxy subset of these invasive plants and developed robust ensemble species distribution models to define their respective potential distributions. The combinations of all species models using both binary and continuous habitat suitability projections resulted in estimates of species richness and diversity that wer

SUBMITTER: Vorsino AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4081720 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature