engleski

Analysing the distribution of the invasive plants in Croatia – do we need more or (just) better data?

Here, we have analysed to what extent spatial accuracy of data affects our perception and knowledge on the ecological, and hence distributional, patterns of the invasive plants in Croatia. Chorological data were divided and grouped according to their spatial accuracy in distinct and cumulative groups. There wasn’t unique trend belonging to specific group with respect to observed differences across different species. This could be partly attributed to the ecology of the particular species (e.g. for some species disturbance proxies will be more important then climatic data, and for some vice versa). Bigger differences were present when less precise data were used solely, then when they were used in bulk (with data of higher precision). Furthermore, we have compared impact of three groups of the environmental variables in explaining distribution of invasive plants in Croatia, i.e. climate data (presented with seasonal precipitation and mean temperature), basic topographical variables (slope, and sine and cosine of aspect) and proxies for disturbance (human population density, distance from the settlements and distance from the traffic infrastructure i.e. roads and railways). While topography variables seems to be almost irrelevant, those serving as proxies for disturbance turns out to be more important than climatic ones for significant share of the invasive plant species, with the particular emphasis on the human population density. To better understand pattern of distribution of the invasive plants it is crucial to improve not only spatial, but thematic resolution of the data as well. Latter goes particularly for the description of the microhabitats of the species that cannot be properly attributed to the chorological data of the species, regardless of their spatial precision, if detailed notes in the field hasn’t been recorded.

spatial precision; climate; disturbance; modelling

nije evidentirano