Spatially Varying Relationships between Alien Plant Distributions and Environmental Factors in South Korea

Park, Jeong-Soo, Lee, Hyohyemi ORCID: 0000-0002-5088-4751, Choi, Donghui and Kim, Youngha (2021) Spatially Varying Relationships between Alien Plant Distributions and Environmental Factors in South Korea. PLANTS-BASEL, 10 (7). 1377-.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants10071377

Abstract

Invasive alien plants can severely threaten biodiversity and cause economic losses in the agricultural industry; therefore, identifying the critical environmental factors related to the distribution of alien plants plays a crucial role in ecosystem management. In this study, we applied partial least squares regression (PLSR) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) to estimate the important environmental factors affecting the spread of two invasive and expansive plants, <i>Lactuca scariola</i> L. and <i>Aster pilosus</i> Willd., across South Korea. GWR provides more accurate predictions than ordinary least squares regression, and the local coefficients of GWR allow for the determination of the spatial relationships between alien plant distributions and environmental variables. Based on the model's results, the distributions of these alien species were significantly associated with anthropogenic effects, such as human population density, residential area, and road density. Furthermore, the two alien species can establish themselves in habitats where native plants cannot thrive, owing to their broad tolerance to temperature and drought conditions. This study suggests that urban development and expansion can facilitate the invasion of these species in metropolitan cities.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	invasive alien plant, geographically weighted regression, partial least squares regression, anthropogenic effect, Lactuca scariola, Aster pilosus
Divisions:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	10 May 2023 20:40
Last Modified:	07 Feb 2024 17:55
DOI:	10.3390/plants10071377
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3170290