Data from: Spatial scale matters for predicting plant invasions along roads
Data files
Nov 21, 2023 version files 3.15 MB
-
Kotowska_etal_2023_JEcol_Data.xlsx
-
README.md
Abstract
Biological invasions threaten global biodiversity and can have severe economic and social impacts. The complexity of this problem challenges effective management of invasive alien species as the contribution of many factors involved in the invasion processes across different spatial scales is not well understood.
Here, we identify the most important determinants associated with the occurrence of two invasive alien plants, the North American goldenrods (Solidago canadensis and S. gigantea), commonly found in agricultural landscapes of Europe. We used Google Street View images to perform a remote, large-scale inventory of goldenrods along 1,347 roadside transects across Poland. Using open access geospatial data and machine learning techniques, we investigated the relative role of nearly 50 variables potentially affecting the distribution of studied species at five spatial scales (from within 0.25 km to 5 km of the studied locations).
We found that the occurrence of goldenrods along roadsides was simultaneously associated with multiple drivers among which those related to human impacts, climate, soil properties and landscape structure were the most important, while local characteristics, such as road parameters or the presence of other alien plants were less influential. However, the relative contribution of different variables in predicting goldenrod distribution changed across spatial scales.
Synthesis: Mechanisms underlying plant invasions are highly complex and a number of factors can jointly influence the outcomes of this process. However, since different invasion drivers operate at different spatial scales, some important associations may be overlooked when focusing on a single spatial context. Although associations were consistent in direction (positive or negative) across scales, their relative influence on goldenrod occurrence often changed. Socio-economic factors were largely important at local scales, while the effect of landscape factors broadly increased with increasing spatial scale. We highlight that using multi-scale approaches involving a wide range of variables may enable setting priorities for the management of invasive alien plants.
README: Data from: Spatial scale matters for predicting plant invasions along roads
The file contains data on the occurrence of invasive alien goldenrod species recorded along 1,347 roadside transects in Poland using Google Street View images. The dataset also includes the environmental and human activity related characteristics potentially affecting the distribution of the studied species (i.a. human impacts, climate, soil properties, landscape structure, road parameters, presence of other alien plants).
Description of the data and file structure
The detailed description of the variables included in the dataset and data sources are provided in the Materials and methods section and in the supplementary material to the article Spatial scale matters for predicting plant invasions along roads. Most of the characteristics included in the dataset were measured at five spatial scales, i.e. within buffer zones of 250, 500, 1000, 2000 and 5000 m from the surveyed transects. The scale at which a particular variable was measured is indicated in the column heading next to the variable name. If no scale is given in the column heading, the variable describes the local scale, that is, a transect or its immediate vicinity.
Variables included in the dataset:
ID - specific ID of a transect,
X - longitude of the central point of a transect line in PUWG1992 metric coordinate system,
Y - latitude of the central point of a transect line in PUWG1992 metric coordinate system,
Goldenrods - giant goldenrod and/or Canadian goldenrod occurrence along a transect (1 – presence, 0 – absence),
TransSections - number of transect sections established along a transect,
GSVYear - year in which a GSV picture was taken,
GSVMonth - month in which a GSV picture was taken,
RoadWidth - road width [m],
RoadCurv - road curvature calculated as the ratio of the length of a transect and the straight-line distance between the end points of a transect,
RoadDir - road direction determined as the absolute deviation from NS direction in degrees,
RoadClass - road class: 1=primary, 2=secondary, 3=tertiary, 4=unclassified, 5=track,
MownVerge - proportion of roadside (i.e. area within 30 m a transect line) considered mown,
RiverDist - distance to the nearest watercourse [km],
RiverDens - density of watercourses within a buffer [km/km2],
RoadDens - road density within a buffer [km/km2],
UrbanDist - distance to the nearest built-up areas [km],
Artificial - coverage of artificial surfaces [%],
Arable - coverage of arable land and permanent crops [%],
Pasture - coverage of pastures [%],
HetAgri - coverage of heterogeneous agricultural areas [%],
Forest - coverage of forests [%],
SemiNat - coverage of semi-natural habitats [%],
Water - coverage of wetlands and water bodies [%],
LandscConfig - landscape configuration; density of land parcel borders within a buffer [km/km2],
AgriIntens - agricultural intensity index,
BoxElder - proportion of transect sections occupied by box elder Acer negundo,
BlackLocust - proportion of transect sections occupied by black locust Robinia pseudacacia,
CanHorseweed - proportion of transect sections occupied by Canadian horseweed Conyza canadensis,
AlienPlants - number of alien plant species (other than goldenrods) observed along a transect,
LandscComp - landscape composition; modified Simpson’s diversity index of land cover types within a buffer,
Income - commune income per capita [PLN‧103],
PopDens - population density in a commune [1000 people‧km-2],
Citizens65 - share of citizens older than 65 years in the total population of a given commune [%],
PropWomen - proportion of women; number of women per 100 men in a commune,
Unemploym - share of registered unemployed in the total working-age population of a given commune [%],
HigherEd - share of higher educated citizens in the total number of economically active population of a given commune [%],
GrowingSeas - growing season length [days],
MeanTemp - annual mean temperature [°C],
Precipitation - annual precipitation [mm],
SolarRad - average annual potential incoming solar radiation [MJ‧m-2‧day-1],
HFI - Human Footpront Index,
Grassland - coverage of grasslands [%],
Wetness - coverage of water and wet surfaces [%],
NDVI - Normalized Difference Vegetation Index,
Urban - coverage of built-up areas [%],
Wasteland - share of uncultivated land [%],
SoilCaCO3 - topsoil calcium carbonates content [mg‧kg-1],
SoilK - topsoil potassium content [mg‧kg-1],
SoilN - topsoil nitrogen content [g‧kg-1],
SoilP - topsoil phosphorus content [mg‧kg-1],
SoilpH - topsoil pH measured in water,
BasalResp - potential soil microbial basal respiration [(µL O2/(g soil dry weight ⋅hr)],
MicBiomass - soil microbial biomass [µg Cmic/g soil dry weight]