Temperature, topography, soil characteristics, and NDVI drive habitat preferences of a shade-tolerant invasive grass

Aim: Despite the large literature documenting the negative effects of invasive grasses, we lack an understanding of the drivers of their habitat suitability, especially for shade-tolerant species that do not respond positively to canopy disturbance. We aimed to understand the environmental niche and potential spatial distribution of a relatively new invasive species, wavyleaf basketgrass (Oplismenus undulatifolius (Ard.) Roem. & Schult, WLBG) by leveraging data available at two different spatial scales.

Location: Mid-Atlantic region of the United States

Methods: Maximum entropy modeling (Maxent) was used to predict the habitat suitability of WLBG at the regional and the landscape scale. Following variable evaluation, model calibration, and model evaluation, final models were created using 1,000 replicates and projected to each study area.

Results: At the regional scale, our best models show that suitability for WLBG was driven by relatively high annual mean temperatures, lo...