Human-mediated dispersal redefines mangrove biogeography in the Anthropocene

Introduction of species by humans breaks down biogeographic boundaries and results in the homogenization of species composition, yet empirical tests of this impact in marine forest ecosystems are still scarce. Large-scale planting aimed at reversing losses of mangroves has been the dominant strategy for mangrove restoration adopted by many organizations in the past decades, but there is a lack of quantitative understanding of the impacts of such large-scale plantings on mangrove biogeography. Here we used data collected before and after large-scale planting to compare the species richness and compositional similarities among 72 mangrove sites over a biogeographic scale (18-28 °N) in China. After the large-scale planting, 15 of the mangrove species spread towards the higher latitudes, reflecting the geographical barriers of the mangrove plants have been broken. Local species richness of mangrove increased by 44.82% and biogeographic compositional similarity of mangroves increased by 13.3...

人类引入物种会打破生物地理边界，导致物种组成同质化，但目前针对海洋森林生态系统中该影响的实证检验仍较为匮乏。过去数十年间，旨在逆转红树林（Mangrove）退化的大规模造林一直是众多机构采用的主流红树林修复策略，但学界对这类大规模造林对红树林生物地理格局的影响仍缺乏定量认知。本研究利用大规模造林前后收集的监测数据，对中国18°N至28°N生物地理尺度下的72个红树林样地的物种丰富度与群落组成相似性进行了对比分析。大规模造林后，共有15种红树林向高纬度区域扩散，反映出红树林植物的地理屏障已被打破。本地红树林物种丰富度提升了44.82%，红树林生物地理组成相似性提升了13.3……