AUTHOR=Yue Shidong , Zhou Yi , Xu Shaochun , Zhang Xiaomei , Liu Mingjie , Qiao Yongliang , Gu Ruiting , Xu Shuai , Zhang Yu 

TITLE=Can the Non-native Salt Marsh Halophyte Spartina alterniflora Threaten Native Seagrass (Zostera japonica) Habitats? A Case Study in the Yellow River Delta, China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.643425

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2021.643425

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Seagrass meadows are critical ecosystems, and they are among the most threatened habitats on the planet. As an anthropogenic biotic invader, <italic>Spartina alterniflora</italic> Loisel. competes with native plants, threatens native ecosystems and coastal aquaculture, and may cause local biodiversity to decline. The distribution area of the exotic species <italic>S. alterniflora</italic> in the Yellow River Delta had been expanding to ca.4,000 ha from 1990 to 2018. In this study, we reported, for the first time, the competitive effects of the exotic plant (<italic>S. alterniflora</italic>) on seagrass (<italic>Zostera japonica</italic> Asch. &amp; Graebn.) by field investigation and a transplant experiment in the Yellow River Delta. Within the first 3 months of the field experiment, <italic>S. alterniflora</italic> had pushed forward 14 m into the <italic>Z. japonica</italic> distribution region. In the study region, the area of <italic>S. alterniflora</italic> in 2019 increased by 516 times compared with its initial area in 2015. Inhibition of <italic>Z. japonica</italic> growth increased with the invasion of <italic>S. alterniflora</italic>. <italic>Z. japonica</italic> had been degrading significantly under the pressure of <italic>S. alterniflora</italic> invasion. <italic>S. alterniflora</italic> propagates sexually via seeds for long distance invasion and asexually by tillers and rhizomes for short distance invasion. Our results describe the invasion pattern of <italic>S. alterniflora</italic> and can be used to develop strategies for prevention and control of <italic>S. alterniflora</italic> invasion.</p>